How European Is Chile?

[Chabeco]

Chilean here. I can clarify that yes, Chile can hardly be described or classified as a “white” country unless people broaden the definition of “white” almost to the point of making it meaningless (to clarify; many mestizos here could pass either as whites or browns, reason for that is because being a “mestizo” is not synonymous of being “brown”, it is about being mixed, Chileans mestizos can overlap a lot skin wise). Genetically speaking, Chileans are on average around 55–60% European and 40–45% Amerindian, give it or take it a bit. I’m quite sure that this might confuse some because, skin wise, the Amerindian Chileans are not that brown skinned (specially those from the central and southern parts of the country), this would of also explain why many Chilean mestizos do not pass the stereotype of being “brown skinned people” as some foreigners would have expected, probably because when they think of Hispanic people, they’re thinking of mestizo looking people from Mexico, Hispanic Central American countries, etc.

To start, Chile was historically a very peripheral and isolated nation, although a relatively newly developed one since the early 20th century at least, and what most foreigners knew better was probably just the elite areas of places like Santiago, Valparaíso, Viña Del Mar, Concepción, La Serena, Valdivia, and Puerto Montt, which also tend to be “whiter” (this very much depends on which specific areas of those cities) due to European migration to those specific cities.

Just like this video mentioned, Chile did not receive such an immense immigration like Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil did. However, we did receive a heavy Spanish immigration during colonial times, and these Spaniards were Basques and Castilians for the most part, with some others coming from different parts of Spain like Andalusia, Extremadura, Asturias, Cantabria, Navarra, Catalonia, Aragon, etc.

As a whole though, a large part of the Chilean population is descended from Spaniards who emigrated as settlers to Chile (Andalusians, Extremadurans, Castilians and Basques between the 16th and 18th centuries, during the colonial era, when Chile was part of the Spanish Empire).

Most of the first conquistadors in Chile were a small amount of peninsular Spaniards along with criollos, castizos, and mestizos from the Americas (specially from the viceroyalty of Perú). Along them came various Amerindian Auxiliaries (they were Amerindian tribes from various parts of the continent that allied with the Spanish Empire or it’s private entities and fought alongside conquistadors during the conquest of Chile) like the Yanaconas.

As for the mestizaje during colonial times, this process occurred since the arrival of Diego de Almagro in 1536. Miscegenation during the conquest was mainly the work of peninsular Spaniards (along with criollos, castizos, and mestizos) and Amerindian women (most of them being Diaguitas, Pincunches, Pehuenches, Promaucaes, and Chiquillanes for the most part), since the peninsular women arrived late in the territory (the mixed race women arrived before).

The process of miscegenation also occurred during the Arauco War, many reche (mapuche) warriors that attacked, raided, sacked, and pillaged into Spanish held territories/settlements ended up abducting many peninsular, criollas, castizas, and mestizas from those settlements of which ended up mixing with reche men (which further explains why they look kinda pale compared to other Amerindian tribes in the continent). Likewise, the Spanish troops, who did not have many women with them, did the same thing in their malocas (raids) in Reche held settlements/territories.

When Spanish troops (most of them being of criollos, castizos, and mestizos) deserted to Reches or got captured by them in battle, not only did they get favorable positions of power in tribal military units due to their knowledge on military and experience on warfare, they also started a new life for themselves with Reche women (which means that miscegenation went in lots of different ways).

And due to our dependence on the viceroyalty of Perú, almost all of the soldiers brought to the Arauco war were mostly colonial times Peruvians, more specifically; criollos, castizos, and mestizos from the viceroyalty of Perú. Most of the peninsular troops that were brought here during the war came from Perú (they were born in Spain, but later moved to Perú for military purposes and later as settling down), some of them were officers and troops. Once their services had concluded, most of them stayed in the country and received a small amount of land as a reward. The entire population of Chile descends from these individuals (obviously mixed with Amerindians, indo-mestizos, and mestizos from the processes prior to each generation).

That’s how mestizaje occurred from both sides, which means that most of us Chileans descent from this process of mestizaje.

And despite what people seem to believe, the most predominant Amerindian component in the average Chilean DNA is of Picunche and Diaguita origin, not Reche. This makes a lot of sense since Chile in its beginnings covered territories from the Atacama region to the Maule River and it was in this stage where the mixing between Spaniards and Amerindians occurred (this of course doesn’t mean that Chileans don’t have Reche heritage at all, in fact, we obviously do, but not to the extent as to how some people think we do).

To give some context about our Castilian-Basque immigration, the Basques (which came here from both Spain and France) emigrated to the Capitanía General de Chile since its foundation, but it wasn't until the XVI century that they became the largest Iberian community. First, they became prosperous through trade, and then they got engaged through marriage with the Castillian families that also settled in the country, giving birth to what Chilean historians have denominated as the "Castillian-Basque Aristocracy, " and that dominated the country politically and economically from before the independence until the end of the second half of the XX century. Though some can argue that their influence has been decimated by the irruption of the middle class (which is predominantly of castizo-mestizo origin) and primarily by the other waves of immigration that happened after, but it hasn't disappeared at all.

That's why almost all our presidents between the independence and 1932 had last names of Basque origin.

After that our immigration numbers were low, but many of those were Northern Europeans (Chile has the largest amount of British/English descendants in all of Latin America, and a sizable amount of German descendants). We also can’t forget about the Palestinians, Croats, and Greeks. Chile hosts the biggest descendants of them in Latin America curiously enough.

Also, people need to see by administrative regions. Northern Chile is largely mestizo (and they are mostly Andean mestizos, like the ones you would likely to see in Peru, Bolivia and Northern Argentina), but we also can’t forget about the criollo-castizo minority (which ended up mixing with the mestizo population) that settled in the north due to the booming of the salitre industry and later the copper mining industry which made lots of Chileans (mostly of criollo/castizo origin) from the Central and Southern parts of the country migrate to the north. Central and Southern Chile is where you are likely to see many whites, and the south is where the biggest amount of northern europeans settled. The immigration from Argentina also exists here. Santiago is a central hub where you'll meet people from all backgrounds, but I would say that most are castizos. East Santiago is predominantly criollo-castizo, though. Central Chile is where most (80%) Chileans live which predominantly castizo-mestizo in it’s majority.

Add that to our civic culture (which is predominantly Spanish with some British/English and German influences) and that's why people see us as kinda europeans, something like Argentina lite. In reality, Chile is mostly castizo-mestizo in its majority, but it has a sizable “white” minority. Oh, and the fact that many here don't care about the genetics, they care about your looks. A ton of Chileans have white skin, brown skin, olive skin, etc. It's mostly in some facial complexions where you will see the Amerindian influence. But yeah, barring Brazil/Argentina/Uruguay, Chile received immigration and influences from various european countries, unlike other countries which were just limited to Spain (and some other countries to a degree of course).

So with all this in mind, you guys might understand a little as to how complex our country is historically, culturally, and genetically!

I’m not surprised that people who has no idea about our country’s history coupled with some ignorance about how Chileans actually look like, especially outside the wealthiest cities and regions, explains why some people tend to think or even presume without much profound evidences that Chile “must be a white country” just because it states so. Some people just assume that a country that is wealthy and developed in its subcontinent must mean that it is “white European” in majority (which is basically nonsense in this case).

But anyone who has ever visited Chile, even the capital Santiago alone, or even anyone who has seen many pictures of Chilean citizens will notice immediately that, despite Chile having a “large” (but not major one at all) proportion of white people, the country in fact has a majority of castizo-mestizo people as well as a very sizeable minority of people with heavy Amerindian looks.

[dany]

As a Chilean, I can say I have DNA from pre-Hispanic peoples, from Spain itself, and from the UK, through my direct ancestry. And with all that, I have white skin, green eyes, and ash-blond hair. And in my own family, there are both, white and brown people. That's what the fact that Chile is a mestizo country.

[zhiro_]

Can you do the same with Paraguay? Please

[clalaola]

What? I am Chilean and I have Portuguese, Spanish, Korean and Italian ancestry. My husband has Spanish and English….

[JeanPhilippeArlet]

🤮 and? Immigration from Europe wow!! So impressed