This is an accepted version of this page
143-513: Chileans ( Spanish : Chilenos , pronounced [tʃiˈlenos] ) are an ethnic group and nation native to the country of Chile and its neighboring insular territories . Most Chileans share a common culture , history , ancestry and language . The overwhelming majority of Chileans are the product of varying degrees of admixture between European ethnic groups (predominantly Basques and Spaniards ) with peoples indigenous to Chile's modern territory (predominantly Mapuche ). Chile
286-747: A 2010 research published in the journal "Physical Anthropology", European ancestry predominates in majority of Nicaraguans at 69% genetic contribution, followed by Native American ancestry at 20%, and lastly Northwest African ancestry at 11%, making Nicaragua the country with one of the highest proportion of European ancestry in Latin America. Non-genetic self-reported data from the CIA World Factbook consider that Nicaragua's population averages phenotypically at 69% Mestizo / Castizo , 17% White , 9% Afro-Latino and 5% Native American . This fluctuates with changes in migration patterns. The population
429-653: A 7.8% of the total population is white in Honduras. During the 19th century several immigrants from Catalonia , Germany , Italy and Eastern Europe arrived to Honduras. Some of these Europeans were Jews from the Russian Empire , escaping the pogroms . However most of this migrants mixed up with the mayority mestizo population of Honduras, thus adding new genetic load to the Honduran population from other places in Europe. Of these
572-979: A Spanish-based creole language called Chavacano developed in the southern Philippines. However, it is not mutually intelligible with Spanish. The number of Chavacano-speakers was estimated at 1.2 million in 1996. The local languages of the Philippines also retain significant Spanish influence, with many words derived from Mexican Spanish , owing to the administration of the islands by Spain through New Spain until 1821, until direct governance from Madrid afterwards to 1898. White Latin American White Latin Americans or European Latin Americans (sometimes Euro-Latinos ) are Latin Americans who claim or being classified as white people with predominant European ancestry. Theoretically, notable or direct descendants of European settlers who arrived in
715-588: A considerable number of words from Arabic , as well as a minor influence from the Germanic Gothic language through the period of Visigoth rule in Iberia. In addition, many more words were borrowed from Latin through the influence of written language and the liturgical language of the Church. The loanwords were taken from both Classical Latin and Renaissance Latin , the form of Latin in use at that time. According to
858-517: A dramatic change in the pronunciation of its sibilant consonants , known in Spanish as the reajuste de las sibilantes , which resulted in the distinctive velar [x] pronunciation of the letter ⟨j⟩ and—in a large part of Spain—the characteristic interdental [θ] ("th-sound") for the letter ⟨z⟩ (and for ⟨c⟩ before ⟨e⟩ or ⟨i⟩ ). See History of Spanish (Modern development of
1001-476: A first language by Spaniards and educated Filipinos ( Ilustrados ). Despite a public education system set up by the colonial government, by the end of Spanish rule in 1898, only about 10% of the population had knowledge of Spanish, mostly those of Spanish descent or elite standing. Spanish continued to be official and used in Philippine literature and press during the early years of American administration after
1144-421: A height of only 2,500 — or 0.1% of the total population — during the colonial period. The birth rates of black people were low. According to Sergio Villalobos this could have been indebted to the fact that black women and men were often apart as result of their slave labor and an hesitancy of other racial groups to engage with them. In the 18th century, many Spanish civilians (mainly of Basque origin) entered
1287-627: A lesser extent, the arrival from the Middle East during the second half of the 19th and 20th centuries, was the most important in Latin America second to that which occurred in the Atlantic Coast of the Southern Cone (i.e., Argentina and southern Brazil ). These European ethnic groups have intermarried thereby diluting the distinct cultures, descent and identities of the home countries and fusing them among each other. These intermixed cultures form
1430-471: A long history in the territory of the current-day United States dating back to the 16th century. In the wake of the 1848 Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty , hundreds of thousands of Spanish speakers became a minoritized community in the United States. The 20th century saw further massive growth of Spanish speakers in areas where they had been hitherto scarce. According to the 2020 census, over 60 million people of
1573-553: A majority of Chileans acknowledging that they had at least some Amerindian ancestry, if asked, many Chileans would simply self-identify as white. Thus, in a 2011 Latinobarómetro survey which asked respondents in Chile what race they considered themselves to belong to, a majority of 67% answered "white", while 25% said "mestizo", and 8% self-classified as "indigenous". For at least 12,000 years, numerous indigenous peoples settled in central and southern Chile. The predominant Mapuche made up
SECTION 10
#17328445011641716-492: A point of increasing the white population, or " whitening " the racial composition of the country, by rejecting black immigrants from Haiti and local blacks as foreigners. He also welcomed Jewish refugees in 1938 and Spanish farmers in the 1950s as part of this plan. The country's German minority is the largest in the Caribbean. The white and the mulatto population of Haiti are classified about 5% of its population, while 95%
1859-454: A population census in Chiloe that totaled 26,703 inhabitants, of which about 64.4% was classified as españoles ("Spaniards", Caucasian and mixed Mestizo people) and 33.5% considered indios ("Indians"). First generation mestizos sprang largely from the intercourse of Spanish men and indigenous women. The opposite, the union of indigenous men and Spanish women was rare but not unheard of. In 1812,
2002-557: A predominant 52.7% of the Chilean population can be classified as European , with an estimated 44% as Mestizo . Other social studies put the total amount of Whites at over 60 percent. Some publications, such as the CIA World Factbook , state that the entire population consist of a combined 95.4% of "Whites and White-Amerindians", and 4.6% of indigenous peoples. These figures are based on a national census held in 2002, which classified
2145-498: A primarily Hassaniya Arabic -speaking territory, Spanish was officially spoken as the language of the colonial administration during the late 19th and 20th centuries. Today, Spanish is present in the partially-recognized Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic as its secondary official language, and in the Sahrawi refugee camps in Tindouf ( Algeria ), where the Spanish language is still taught as
2288-675: A racial issue, it was never a problem for the native or slave populations in the colonies of the Spanish Empire, and by law people from all races were to join the army, with openly practicing Roman Catholicism being the only prerequisite. One notable example was that of Francisco Menendez , a freed-black military officer of the Spanish Army during the 18th century at the Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose fort in St. Augustine, Florida. The country with
2431-599: A second language features characteristics involving the variability of the vowel system. While far from its heyday during the Spanish protectorate in Morocco , the Spanish language has some presence in northern Morocco , stemming for example from the availability of certain Spanish-language media. According to a 2012 survey by Morocco's Royal Institute for Strategic Studies (IRES), penetration of Spanish in Morocco reaches 4.6% of
2574-518: A second language, largely by Cuban educators. The number of Spanish speakers is unknown. Spanish is also an official language of the African Union . Spanish was an official language of the Philippines from the beginning of Spanish administration in 1565 to a constitutional change in 1973. During Spanish colonization , it was the language of government, trade, and education, and was spoken as
2717-1126: A similar methodology, the American Sociological Association obtained a percentage of 18.8% having its higher frequency on the North region (22.3%–23.9%) followed by the Center region (18.4%–21.3%) and the South region (11.9%). Another study made by the University College London in collaboration with Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History found that the frequencies of blond hair and light eyes in Mexicans are of 18% and 28% respectively, surveys that use as reference skin color such as those made by Mexico's National Council to Prevent Discrimination and Mexico's National Institute of Statistics and Geography report percentages that go from 27% to 47%. A study performed in hospitals of Mexico City suggests that socioeconomic factors influence
2860-875: A smaller community in North America (the US and Canada). The Chilean-Swedish population is estimated at 56,000 people, a result of migration that began with the political refugees from the 1973 coup d'état. Over 100,000 Chileans fleeing from both regimes in the 1970s and 1980s settled in the US, a small number compared to other Latino groups. The highest number settled in Miami, Florida , but smaller enclaves are in Washington, D.C. ; New York City; and California (the Los Angeles area – Beverly Hills and Long Beach ; and San Francisco – San Mateo County ). Approximately 2,500 Chilean exiles fled to
3003-459: A study in 2011 Whites are on average 5.8% African with African ancestry ranging from 0% to 13%. 75% of whites are under 8% African and 50% are under 5% African. A study from 2009 analysed the genetic structure of the three principal ethnic groups from Havana City (209 individuals), and the contribution of parental populations to its genetic pool. A contribution from Indigenous peoples of the Americas
SECTION 20
#17328445011643146-408: A survey conducted by Cohesión Social in Latin America, conducted on a sample of 10,000 people from seven countries of the region, 34% of those interviewed identified themselves as white. Being white is a term that emerged from a tradition of racial classification that developed as many Europeans colonized large parts of the world and employed classificatory systems to distinguish themselves from
3289-555: A third of all residents (28% and 31% respectively) were born abroad. Other communes of Greater Santiago with high numbers of immigrants are Estación Central (17%) and Recoleta (16%). In the northern regions such as Antofagasta Region , 17.3% of the population is a Latin American foreigner, with communes such as Ollagüe (31%), Mejillones (16%), Sierra Gorda (16%) and Antofagasta (11%), with high percentages of Latin American immigrants, mainly Bolivians, Colombians and Peruvians. With
3432-591: A yellow (or amarilla) racial category before its removal in 21st century census results. An autosomal study from 2014 found the genetic makeup in Cuba to be 72% European, 20% African, and 8% Native American with different proportions depending on the self-reported ancestry (White, Mulatto or Mestizo, and Black). According to this study Whites are on average 86% European, 6.7% African and 7.8% Native American with European ancestry ranging from 65% to 99%. 75% of whites are over 80% European and 50% are over 88% European According to
3575-400: Is Spanish descent, but there were German and Italian migration throughout Nineteen and Twenty Century in the country Honduras contains perhaps one of the smallest percentages of classified whites in Latin America comparatively with the majority population. According some census with only about 3% of the Honduran population is classified in this group. Another census indicates that near
3718-416: Is cognate to the root word of satisfacer ("to satisfy"), and hecho ("made") is similarly cognate to the root word of satisfecho ("satisfied"). Compare the examples in the following table: Some consonant clusters of Latin also produced characteristically different results in these languages, as shown in the examples in the following table: In the 15th and 16th centuries, Spanish underwent
3861-508: Is 58% urban as of 2013 . In the 19th century, Nicaragua experienced a wave of immigration, primarily from Western Europe. In particular, families moved to Nicaragua to set up businesses with the money they brought from Europe. They established many agricultural businesses, such as coffee and sugarcane plantations, as well as newspapers, hotels, and banks. A study called "Genomic Components in America's demography" published in 2017, estimates that
4004-640: Is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula of Europe . Today, it is a global language with about 500 million native speakers, mainly in the Americas and Spain , and about 600 million when including second language speakers. Spanish is the official language of 20 countries , as well as one of the six official languages of
4147-451: Is a multilingual and multicultural society, but an overwhelming majority of Chileans have Spanish as their first language and either are Christians or have a Christian cultural background. However, many Chileans do not equate their nationality with ethnicity, but with citizenship and allegiance to Chile. This has resulted due to immigration to Chile throughout its history, and thus the term "Chilean" can now also include people identifying with
4290-428: Is also a sizable and influential Jewish community. The ancestry of Argentines is mostly European, with both Native American and African contributions. According to a 2006 autosomal DNA study the genetic structure of Argentina would be: 78.0% European, 19.4% Amerindian and 2.5% African. Using other methods it was found that it could be: 80.2% European, 18.1% Amerindian and 1.7% African. A 2010 autosomal DNA study found
4433-620: Is classified being African descent. That 5% minority group comprises people of many different ethnic and national backgrounds, who are French , Spanish, Polish and other European ancestry, as well as the Jewish diaspora , arriving from the Polish legion and during the Holocaust, Germans (18th century and World War I ), and Italian . An early census on the island was conducted by Governor Francisco Manuel de Lando in 1530. An exhaustive 1765 census
Chileans - Misplaced Pages Continue
4576-449: Is estimated that about 486 million people speak Spanish as a native language , making it the second most spoken language by number of native speakers . An additional 75 million speak Spanish as a second or foreign language , making it the fourth most spoken language in the world overall after English, Mandarin Chinese, and Hindi with a total number of 538 million speakers. Spanish is also
4719-740: Is heavily influenced by Venezuelan Spanish. In addition to sharing most of its borders with Spanish-speaking countries, the creation of Mercosur in the early 1990s induced a favorable situation for the promotion of Spanish language teaching in Brazil . In 2005, the National Congress of Brazil approved a bill, signed into law by the President , making it mandatory for schools to offer Spanish as an alternative foreign language course in both public and private secondary schools in Brazil. In September 2016 this law
4862-607: Is mainly associated with the Chilean national identity is that of the huasos as that is where the Chilean state was formed and it spread northwards and southwards in the late 19th century. Emigration of Chileans has decreased during the last decade: It is estimated that 857,781 Chileans live abroad, 50.1% of those being in Argentina (the highest number), 13.3% in the United States, 8.8% in Brazil , 4.9% in Sweden, and around 2% in Australia, with
5005-494: Is not embraced as it is an offshoot of the culture of the Spaniards who settled the country in the colonial period. Since 1990, with the end of Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship and the return to democracy, and the subsequent socioeconomic development of the country, a significant number of immigrants from various Latin American countries started to arrive to Chile. These represented nearly 1,200,000 people (2017) corresponding to 7% of
5148-533: Is of Indigenous origin, while the Y chromosome (inherited only from father to son) is about 70% of European origin, and between 6% and 15% Indigenous, depending on the area of the city. The results indicate a gender asymmetrical pattern of sexual relations leading to childbirth in Chile's history. On a genotypic (genetic) level, however, persons in all groups, despite their classification by phenotype (appearance) would nonetheless contain admixture, not just those with stereotypically mestizo appearance. Thus, in Chile,
5291-721: Is related to Castile ( Castilla or archaically Castiella ), the kingdom where the language was originally spoken. The name Castile , in turn, is usually assumed to be derived from castillo ('castle'). In the Middle Ages , the language spoken in Castile was generically referred to as Romance and later also as Lengua vulgar . Later in the period, it gained geographical specification as Romance castellano ( romanz castellano , romanz de Castiella ), lenguaje de Castiella , and ultimately simply as castellano (noun). Different etymologies have been suggested for
5434-806: Is spoken by very small communities in Angola due to Cuban influence from the Cold War and in South Sudan among South Sudanese natives that relocated to Cuba during the Sudanese wars and returned for their country's independence. Spanish is also spoken in the integral territories of Spain in Africa, namely the cities of Ceuta and Melilla and the Canary Islands , located in the Atlantic Ocean some 100 km (62 mi) off
5577-503: Is the case of peoples Picunches , Diaguitas and Chonos , whereas a large number of Selknam or Onas disappeared by the extermination carried out by settlers in Tierra del Fuego in the early 20th century. Other factors that contributed to their extinction were diseases brought by Europeans, such as smallpox . According to the 2017 census, 12.8% of the Chilean population, 1 842 607 people of 14 years or more, declares themselves indigenous. Of
5720-804: Is the de facto national language of the country, Spanish is often used in public services and notices at the federal and state levels. Spanish is also used in administration in the state of New Mexico . The language has a strong influence in major metropolitan areas such as those of Los Angeles , Miami , San Antonio , New York , San Francisco , Dallas , Tucson and Phoenix of the Arizona Sun Corridor , as well as more recently, Chicago , Las Vegas , Boston , Denver , Houston , Indianapolis , Philadelphia , Cleveland , Salt Lake City , Atlanta , Nashville , Orlando , Tampa , Raleigh and Baltimore-Washington, D.C. due to 20th- and 21st-century immigration. Although Spanish has no official recognition in
5863-445: Is used. As Latin America is characterized by differing histories and social contexts, there is also variance in the perception of whiteness throughout Latin America. According to Peter Wade , a specialist in race concepts of Latin America, ...racial categories and racial ideologies are not simply those that elaborate social constructions on the basis of phenotypical variation or ideas about innate difference but those that do so using
Chileans - Misplaced Pages Continue
6006-417: Is why it is difficult to determine the actual white population of Honduras. According to Admixture and genetic relationships of Mexican Mestizos regarding Latin American and Caribbean populations based on 13 CODIS-STRs , the genetic composition of most Hondurans is 58.4% European, 36.2% Amerindian, and 5.4% African. According to a 2014 research published in the journal Genetics and Molecular Biology and to
6149-709: The Basque Country ; in the 19th and 20th century many non- Iberian immigrants arrived to the country as well, either motivated by economic opportunity (Americans, Canadians, English), government programs (Italians, Irish, Germans) or political motives such as the French during the Second Mexican Empire . In the 20th century, international political instability was a key factor to drive immigration to Mexico; in this era Greeks, Armenians, Poles, Russians, Lebanese, Palestinians and Jews, along with many Spanish refugees fleeing
6292-546: The Mapuche resistance to the conquest . The indigenous Picunche population of Central Chile disappeared by a process of mestizaje by gradually abandoning their villages ( pueblo de indios ) to settle in nearby Spanish haciendas. There Picunches mingled with disparate indigenous peoples brought in from: Araucanía ( Mapuche ), Chiloé ( Huilliche , Cunco , Chono , Poyas ) and Argentina ( Huarpe ). Few in numbers, disconnected from their ancestral lands and diluted by mestizaje
6435-538: The Santiago or Antofagasta areas. Chile is one of the 5 countries with the most Greeks in the world. The number of Swiss is about 90,000. About 5% of the Chilean population has some French ancestry . 600,000 to 800,000 are Italians . Other European groups are found in smaller numbers. The European immigrants have transformed the country culturally , economically and politically . European emigration in Chile and to
6578-545: The Spanish Civil War , also settled in Mexico whereas in the 21st century, due to Mexico's economic growth, immigration from Europe has increased (mainly France and Spain), people from the United States have arrived as well, nowadays making up more than three-quarters of Mexico's roughly one million legal migrants. In that time, more people from the United States have been added to the population of Mexico than Mexicans to that of
6721-557: The Spanish as a First Foreign Language (SAFFL) initiative in March 2005. Spanish has historically had a significant presence on the Dutch Caribbean islands of Aruba , Bonaire and Curaçao ( ABC Islands ) throughout the centuries and in present times. The majority of the populations of each island (especially Aruba) speaking Spanish at varying although often high degrees of fluency. The local language Papiamentu (Papiamento on Aruba)
6864-508: The Spanish–American War but was eventually replaced by English as the primary language of administration and education by the 1920s. Nevertheless, despite a significant decrease in influence and speakers, Spanish remained an official language of the Philippines upon independence in 1946, alongside English and Filipino , a standardized version of Tagalog . Spanish was briefly removed from official status in 1973 but reimplemented under
7007-534: The United Nations . Spanish is the world's second-most spoken native language after Mandarin Chinese ; the world's fourth-most spoken language overall after English , Mandarin Chinese, and Hindustani ( Hindi - Urdu ); and the world's most widely spoken Romance language. The country with the largest population of native speakers is Mexico . Spanish is part of the Ibero-Romance language group , in which
7150-556: The University of Brasília , Puerto Rican genetic admixture consists in a 60.3% European, 26.4% African, and 13.2% Amerindian ancestry. From the late 19th century to when the Panama Canal opened, European migrants used Costa Rica to get across the isthmus of Central America to reach the west coast of the United States ( California ). The most recent 2022 Costa Rican census recorded ethnic or racial identity for all groups separately for
7293-581: The lower classes of a high component of indigenous ancestry and the upper classes of a predominant component of European ancestry. Indigenous inheritance, whether cultural or genetic, is most pronounced in rural areas and in aspects of culture such as Chilean cuisine and Chilean Spanish . Although post-independence immigrants never made up more than 2% of the population, there are now hundreds of thousands of Chileans with German , British, French, Croatian, Italian or Palestinian ancestry, though these have also been mostly miscegenated with other groups within
SECTION 50
#17328445011647436-424: The 13th century. Spanish colonialism in the early modern period spurred the introduction of the language to overseas locations, most notably to the Americas. As a Romance language, Spanish is a descendant of Latin. Around 75% of modern Spanish vocabulary is Latin in origin, including Latin borrowings from Ancient Greek. Alongside English and French , it is also one of the most taught foreign languages throughout
7579-640: The 17th to the 20th centuries. The figures shown are, for the years between 1650 and 1980, from the Arias' The Cry of My People... , for 2000, from Lizcano's Composición Étnica... . Percentages are by the editor. Since European colonization , Latin America's population has had a long history of intermixing. Today, many Latin Americans who have European ancestry, may have varying degrees of Indigenous or Sub-Saharan African ancestry as well. The casta categories used in 18th-century colonial Latin America designated people according to their ethnic or racial background, with
7722-485: The 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, large waves of Canarians , Catalans , Andalusians , Castilians , and Galicians immigrated to Cuba. Between 1901 and 1958, more than a million Spaniards arrived in Cuba from Spain; many of these and their descendants left after Castro's Communist regime took power . The country also saw Jewish immigrants coming to the country. Historically, Chinese descendants in Cuba were classified as white. Though more recent censuses would add
7865-546: The 1921 census, however, have been contested by various historians and deemed inaccurate). Other sources suggest higher percentages: Encyclopædia Britannica does not give an exact percentage, but estimates them at about 30% of the population, field surveys that use the presence of blond hair as a reference to classify a Mexican as White found that 23% of the Metropolitan Autonomous University of Mexico institute's population could be classified as such, with
8008-454: The 1970s, Latin American scholars came to agree that race in Latin America could not be understood as the "genetic composition of individuals" but instead must be "based upon a combination of cultural, social, and somatic considerations". In Latin America, a person's ancestry may not be decisive in racial classification. For example, full-blooded siblings can often be classified as belonging to different races (Harris 1964). For these reasons,
8151-404: The 2021–2022 school year alone. The local business process outsourcing industry has also helped boost the language's economic prospects. Today, while the actual number of proficient Spanish speakers is around 400,000, or under 0.5% of the population, a new generation of Spanish speakers in the Philippines has likewise emerged, though speaker estimates vary widely. Aside from standard Spanish,
8294-517: The 20th century, Spanish was introduced to Equatorial Guinea and the Western Sahara , and to areas of the United States that had not been part of the Spanish Empire, such as Spanish Harlem in New York City . For details on borrowed words and other external influences upon Spanish, see Influences on the Spanish language . Spanish is the primary language in 20 countries worldwide. As of 2023, it
8437-435: The Americas during the colonial and post-colonial periods can be found throughout Latin America. Most immigrants who settled the region for the past five centuries were Spanish and Portuguese ; after independence, the most numerous non- Iberian immigrants were French , Italians , and Germans , followed by other Europeans as well as West Asians (such as Levantine Arabs and Armenians ). Composing from 33% to 36% of
8580-735: The Amerindian population fell precipitously. This was due to the small indigenous population in the area and colonial governors wanting to repopulate the land with Europeans. Spaniards, mainly from Galicia and Asturias emigrated to El Salvador. Later, the country would experience other waves of other European immigrants, mainly Italian and Spaniards. The immigration of the time had a great demographic impact, since by 1880 there were 480,000 inhabitants in El Salvador, 40 years later in 1920, there were 1.2 million Salvadorans. During World War II, El Salvador gave documents to Jews from Hungary, France, Germany,
8723-503: The Andean culture in the north. Chile's Nueva Canción movement in modern Chilean folk culture is adapted from the folk music of the north, not of the brass bands but of the panpipes and quenas. The traditional Chilean folk music of the huasos were also popularized, particularly the tonadas, folk songs sung with a guitar, mainly on the topics of love. Several folk groups who dress in huaso costume became famous nationwide. The folk culture that
SECTION 60
#17328445011648866-575: The Antilles", partly as a response to scientific racism. Geologist Robert T. Hill published a book titled Cuba and Porto Rico, with the other islands of the West Indies (1899), wrote that the island was "notable among the West Indian group for the reason that its preponderant population is of the white race" and "Porto Rico, at least, has not become Africanized ". According to a genetic research by
9009-409: The Argentine population to average 78.5% European, 17.3% Native American, and 4.2% sub-Saharan African, in which 63.6% of the tested group had at least one ancestor who was Indigenous . A unweighted autosomal DNA study from 2012 found the genetic composition of Argentines to be 65% European, 31% Native American, and 4% African. The study's conclusion was not to achieve a generalized autosomal average of
9152-410: The Diocese of Concepción conducted a census to the south of the Maule river ; however, this did not include the indigenous population — at that time estimated at 8,000 people — nor the inhabitants of the province of Chiloé. It put the total population at 210,567, of which 86.1% was native Spaniards and 10% were Indian, with a remaining 3.7% of African, mulattos , and mestizo descent. Other estimates in
9295-523: The Equatoguinean education system and is the primary language used in government and business. Whereas it is not the mother tongue of virtually any of its speakers, the vast majority of the population is proficient in Spanish. The Instituto Cervantes estimates that 87.7% of the population is fluent in Spanish. The proportion of proficient Spanish speakers in Equatorial Guinea exceeds the proportion of proficient speakers in other West and Central African nations of their respective colonial languages. Spanish
9438-560: The Falkland Islands ). As in other Latin American countries, in Chile, from the onset of Spanish colonization and settlement , miscegenation or mestizaje was the norm rather than the exception. Today, ethnic and racial self-identities are highly fluid and can differ between persons of the same family, including siblings of the same parentage. It is dictated not only by strict physical appearance, nor more loosely by ancestry (actual or presumed), but by cultural patterns , social class , wealth and access, language, and prevailing biases of
9581-577: The Iberian Peninsula. These languages included Proto-Basque , Iberian , Lusitanian , Celtiberian and Gallaecian . The first documents to show traces of what is today regarded as the precursor of modern Spanish are from the 9th century. Throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern era , the most important influences on the Spanish lexicon came from neighboring Romance languages — Mozarabic ( Andalusi Romance ), Navarro-Aragonese , Leonese , Catalan/Valencian , Portuguese , Galician , Occitan , and later, French and Italian . Spanish also borrowed
9724-412: The Mediterranean populations. The skin lesion reportedly almost always appears on South American and Mexican children who are racially Mestizos , while having a very low frequency (5–10%) in European children. According to the Mexican Social Security Institute (shortened as IMSS) nationwide, around half of Mexican babies have the Mongolian spot. Self-identified white people in Cuba make up 64.1% of
9867-415: The Netherlands, Poland, and Switzerland. It is estimated that they were up to 40,000 immigrants, and even up to 50,000. Genetic study of the publication Genomic Components in America's demography , in which geneticists from all over the continent and Japan participated, that the average genetic composition of the average Salvadoran is: 52% European, 40% Amerindian, 6% African and 2% Middle Eastern. In
10010-424: The Old Spanish sibilants) for details. The Gramática de la lengua castellana , written in Salamanca in 1492 by Elio Antonio de Nebrija , was the first grammar written for a modern European language. According to a popular anecdote, when Nebrija presented it to Queen Isabella I , she asked him what was the use of such a work, and he answered that language is the instrument of empire. In his introduction to
10153-419: The Picunche and their descendants lost their indigenous identity. The government of Agustín de Jáuregui , which ruled around 1777–1778, ordered the first general population census. The census confirmed a total of 259,646 inhabitants at the time, with 73.5% classified as Caucasian, 9.8% as African , 8.6% as Indian , and 7.8% as Mestizo. In 1784, Francisco Hurtado, governor of the province of Chiloé , conducted
10296-527: The Spanish Army or the Catholic Church in the colonies, although this prohibition was inconsistently applied. Applicants to both institutions, and their spouses, had to obtain a Limpieza de sangre (purity of blood) certificate that proved that they had no Jewish or Moorish ancestors, in the same way as those in the Peninsula did. However, being a medieval concept that was more of a religious issue rather than
10439-580: The Spanish-speaking world, Spanish is called not only español but also castellano (Castilian), the language from the Kingdom of Castile , contrasting it with other languages spoken in Spain such as Galician , Basque , Asturian , Catalan/Valencian , Aragonese , Occitan and other minor languages. The Spanish Constitution of 1978 uses the term castellano to define the official language of
10582-502: The U.S. population were of Hispanic or Hispanic American by origin. In turn, 41.8 million people in the United States aged five or older speak Spanish at home, or about 13% of the population. Spanish predominates in the unincorporated territory of Puerto Rico , where it is also an official language along with English. Spanish is by far the most common second language in the country, with over 50 million total speakers if non-native or second-language speakers are included. While English
10725-624: The UK in the early 1970s and by most recent estimates, the Chilean British population is in its tens of thousands, and represents a significant proportion of the UK's Latin American community . By far, the largest concentration of Chileans can be found in London with significant other communities being Birmingham , Sheffield and the Manchester – Liverpool Metropolitan area. Historic emigration took place in
10868-642: The United States, according to government data in both nations. Mexico's northern and western regions have the highest percentages of European population, according to the American historian Howard F. Cline the majority of Mexicans in these regions have no native admixture or are of predominantly European ancestry. In the north and west of Mexico the indigenous tribes were substantially smaller and unlike those found in central and southern Mexico they were mostly nomadic, therefore remaining isolated from colonial population centers, with hostilities between them and Mexican colonists often taking place. This eventually led
11011-514: The United States, which received 24 million.In terms of percentage of the total population, Uruguay has the highest concentrations of self-identified or classified whites, who constitute +70% of their total population, while Honduras and El Salvador have the smallest classified white population, in a range of 1-13%. The European influence in Mexico has its origin on Spanish immigrants who arrived mainly from northern regions of Spain such as Cantabria , Navarra , Asturias , Burgos , Galicia and
11154-415: The United States. In 2010, Self-identifierd white Puerto Ricans are said to comprise the majority of the island's population, with 75.8% of the population identifying as white. Though in the 2020 U.S. census, this percentage dropped to 17.1%. People of self-identified multiracial descent are now the largest demographic in the country, at 49.8%. In 1899, one year after the U.S. invaded and took control of
11297-451: The administration of Ferdinand Marcos two months later. It remained an official language until the ratification of the present constitution in 1987, in which it was re-designated as a voluntary and optional auxiliary language. Additionally, the constitution, in its Article XIV, stipulates that the Government shall provide the people of the Philippines with a Spanish-language translation of
11440-485: The average Nicaraguan is of 58-62% European genetic background, primarily of Spanish (43.63%) but also of German, French, and Italian ancestry; 28% of indigenous American ancestry; and 14% of West African origin. White Panamanians are classified as 6.7% of the population, with those of Spanish ancestry being in the majority. Other ancestries includes Dutch, English, French, German, Swiss, Danish, Irish, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian. There
11583-567: The average middle class genepool was 77% European and 23% Indigenous DNA. By contrast, in southern and northern regions of the country, the Indigenous component surpassed the European component. Related genetic studies conducted on Santiago's mtDNA and Y-DNA found a sex bias in the ethnic origin of those sex-specific chromosomes. Thus, across all social classes, an overwhelming 84% of Santiago's mitochondrial DNA (inherited only from mother to child)
11726-672: The classic hispanus or hispanicus took the suffix -one from Vulgar Latin , as happened with other words such as bretón (Breton) or sajón (Saxon). Like the other Romance languages , the Spanish language evolved from Vulgar Latin , which was brought to the Iberian Peninsula by the Romans during the Second Punic War , beginning in 210 BC. Several pre-Roman languages (also called Paleohispanic languages )—some distantly related to Latin as Indo-European languages , and some that are not related at all—were previously spoken in
11869-495: The consonant written b (a bilabial with plosive and fricative allophones). In modern Spanish, there is no difference between the pronunciation of orthographic b and v . Typical of Spanish (as also of neighboring Gascon extending as far north as the Gironde estuary , and found in a small area of Calabria ), attributed by some scholars to a Basque substratum was the mutation of Latin initial f into h- whenever it
12012-417: The country whose connection may not be ethnic, but cultural, historical, legal, or residential. For most modern Chileans, several or all of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their Chilean identity. There is a strong correlation between the ratio of a Chilean's European and indigenous genetic components and their socioeconomic situation. There is a marked continuum existing between
12155-404: The country's constitution. In recent years changing attitudes among non-Spanish speaking Filipinos have helped spur a revival of the language, and starting in 2009 Spanish was reintroduced as part of the basic education curriculum in a number of public high schools, becoming the largest foreign language program offered by the public school system, with over 7,000 students studying the language in
12298-548: The country, as it arose in the colonial period due to cattle ranching. It could therefore be considered an offshoot of Spanish popular culture of the 17th an 18th centuries as are the folk cultures of the rest of Latin America and also, its direct descendants, Andalusian and Castilian folk cultures. The Andalusian forms in the huaso dress is apparent to Europeans and the music and dances show Spanish origins, even though both have been adapted and are distinct from dress, music and dance in Spain today. The ranches called fundos, where
12441-570: The country, in particular attracted by trade liberalization at the time enacted by the Spanish Crown. In the late 18th century, Basque descendants were estimated to comprise 27% of the total population. Most of the Basque immigrants initially partook in small businesses, though others attained higher levels of prosperity. Of those, many mixed with the Criollo aristocracy of Castilian origin, who owned much of
12584-509: The country. A substantial German immigration took place in 1848, laying the foundation for the German-Chilean community. Under a government sponsored program aimed at colonizing the southern region, the Germans (including German-speaking Swiss , Silesians , Alsatians , Austrians , and Sudeten Germans ), colonized the south and have since influenced the cultural and racial composition of
12727-519: The country. Though the majority of Chileans reside in Chile, significant communities have been established in multiple countries, most noticeably Argentina , United States , Australia and Canada and countries of the European Union . Although small in number, Chilean people also make up a substantial part of the permanent population of Antarctica and the Falkland Islands (see: Chileans in
12870-403: The distinction between "white" and "mixed", and between "mixed" and "black" and "indigenous", is largely subjective and situational, meaning that any attempt to classify by discrete racial categories is fraught with problems. People of European origin began to arrive in the Americas in the 15th century since the first voyage of Christopher Columbus in 1492. Most early migrants were male, but by
13013-548: The early 19th century when Chilean ranchers went to Mexico after their independence. Thousands of miners from Chile went to California , the U.S. during the 1850s California Gold Rush , as well in other gold rushes in Colorado (1870s) and the Yukon (1890s). Small numbers of Chilean miners also migrated to South Africa and Australia for the same reason. Spanish language Spanish ( español ) or Castilian ( castellano )
13156-602: The early and mid-16th century, more and more women also began to arrive from Europe. After the Wars of Independence, the elites of most of the countries of the region concluded that their underdevelopment was caused by their populations being mostly Amerindian , Mestizo or Mulatto ; so a major process of " whitening " was required, or at least desirable. Most Latin American countries then implemented blanqueamiento policies to promote European immigration, and some were quite successful, especially Argentina, Uruguay , and Brazil. From
13299-611: The era. These very factors, indeed, lend to the significantly varying ethnic structure figures from one source to the next. Additionally, those various figures refer to different, even if often overlapping, concepts: including racial vs ethnic categories, self-identity vs genetic findings, as well as culturally assigned categories. These concepts should not be confused, and the figures represented in one source might not be corresponding to figures of concepts from another source. Thus, for instance, UNAM professor of Latin American studies, Francisco Lizcano, in his social research estimates that
13442-626: The first Spanish colonists in Costa Rica may have been Jewish converts to Christianity. The first sizable group of self-identified Jews immigrated from diaspora communities in Poland, beginning in 1929. From the 1930s to the early 1950s, journalistic and official anti-Semitic campaigns fueled harassment of Jews; however, by the 1950s and 1960s, the immigrants won greater acceptance. Most of the 3,500 Costa Rican Jews today are not highly observant, but they remain largely endogamous. A study done in Costa Rica, in
13585-478: The first time in more than ninety-five years since the 1927 census . Options included indigenous, Black or Afro-descendant, Mulatto, Chinese, Mestizo, white and other on section IV: question 7. Estimates of the percentage classified as white people vary between 77% and 82%, or about 3.1–3.5 million people. The white and mestizo populations combined equal 83%, according to the CIA World Factbook . Many of
13728-661: The following table: Spanish is marked by palatalization of the Latin double consonants ( geminates ) nn and ll (thus Latin annum > Spanish año , and Latin anellum > Spanish anillo ). The consonant written u or v in Latin and pronounced [w] in Classical Latin had probably " fortified " to a bilabial fricative /β/ in Vulgar Latin. In early Spanish (but not in Catalan or Portuguese) it merged with
13871-466: The former British colony of Belize (known until 1973 as British Honduras ) where English is the sole official language, according to the 2022 census, 54% of the total population are able to speak the language. Due to its proximity to Spanish-speaking countries and small existing native Spanish speaking minority, Trinidad and Tobago has implemented Spanish language teaching into its education system. The Trinidadian and Tobagonian government launched
14014-527: The frequency of Mongolian spots among newborns, as evidenced by the higher prevalence of 85% in newborns from a public institution, typically associated with lower socioeconomic status, compared to a 33% prevalence in newborns from private hospitals, which generally cater to families with higher socioeconomic status. The Mongolian spot appears with a very high frequency (85-95%) in Native American, and African children, but can be present in some individuals in
14157-584: The grammar, dated 18 August 1492, Nebrija wrote that "... language was always the companion of empire." From the 16th century onwards, the language was taken to the Spanish-discovered America and the Spanish East Indies via Spanish colonization of America . Miguel de Cervantes , author of Don Quixote , is such a well-known reference in the world that Spanish is often called la lengua de Cervantes ("the language of Cervantes"). In
14300-450: The huasos lived and worked show strong similarity with Spanish vernacular architecture , especially in the canal roofs and the interior courtyards. The fundo is now thought of as traditional Chilean architecture and is associated with the huaso . As well as the huaso culture of the central part of the country can be seen the German , Chilote , Croatian and Magallanic culture in the south, and
14443-576: The independence of Chile in the 1810s, Mapuche began to be seen as Chileans by other Chileans, contrasting with previous perceptions of them as a separate people or nation. Although indigenous peoples like Mapuche and Aymaras are in some situations contrasted against Chilean people the two demonyms are not mutually exclusive and are rather often used in combination. For example, "a Chilean Aymara" can be used to contrast with Aymaras living in Bolivia or Peru. The 1907 census reported 101,118 Indians, or 3.1% of
14586-416: The island, 61.8% identified as white. In 2000, for the first time in fifty years, the census asked people to define their race and found the percentage of whites had risen to 80.5% (3,064,862); not because there has been an influx of whites to the island (or an exodus of non-White people), but a change of race perceptions, mainly because Puerto Rican elites wished to portray Puerto Rico as the "white island of
14729-641: The land. This resulted in the Castilian-Basque aristocracy , which later came to form the basis of the Chilean ruling class; other Basques also integrated with mestizo population of Castilian origin, that resulted in modern Chilean middle classes. The number of descendants from Basques in Chile are estimated at 10% of the population (1.7 million). After Chile's independence successive waves of Spanish , Italians , Irish , French , Greeks , Germans , British , Dutch , Croats , Russians , Poles , Hungarians , Portuguese and Middle Eastern people immigrated to
14872-527: The language is also known as Castilian ( castellano ). The group evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in Iberia after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century. The oldest Latin texts with traces of Spanish come from mid-northern Iberia in the 9th century, and the first systematic written use of the language happened in Toledo , a prominent city of the Kingdom of Castile , in
15015-479: The language's hegemony in an intensely centralising Spanish state were established from the 18th century onward. Other European territories in which it is also widely spoken include Gibraltar and Andorra . Spanish is also spoken by immigrant communities in other European countries, such as the United Kingdom , France , Italy , and Germany . Spanish is an official language of the European Union . Today,
15158-486: The largest number of self-identified Euro-Latino inhabitants in Latin America is Brazil, with 88 million out of 203.0 million total Brazilians, or 43.4% of the total population, as of the 2022 census. Brazil's southern region contains the highest concentration, at 79% of the population self-identificated. Argentina received the largest number of post-colonial European immigrants, with more than 7 million, second only to
15301-466: The late 17th century indicate that the population reached a maximum total of 152,000, consisting of 72% whites and mestizos, 18% Indians, and 10% blacks and mulattos. For many years, Spanish-descent settlers and religious orders imported African slaves to the country, which in the early 19th century constituted 1.5% of the national population. Despite this, the Afro-Chilean population was small, reaching
15444-423: The late 19th century to the early 20th century, the number of European immigrants who arrived far surpassed the number of original colonists. Between 1821 and 1932, of a total 15 million immigrants who arrived in Latin America, Argentina received 6.4 million, and Brazil 5.5 million. The following table shows estimates (in thousands) of white, black/mulatto, Amerindian, and mestizo populations of Latin America, from
15587-419: The local inhabitants. However, while most present-day racial classifications include a concept of being white that is ideologically connected to European heritage and specific phenotypic and biological features associated with European heritage, there are differences in how people are classified. These differences arise from the various historical processes and social contexts in which a given racial classification
15730-512: The main classifications being indio (used to refer to Native American people), Spaniard , and mestizo , although the categories were rather fluid and inconsistently used. Under this system, those with one Indio great-grandparent but the remainder being Spaniards, were legally Spaniards. The offspring of a castizo and Spaniard was a Spaniard. The same was not true for African ancestry. As in Spain, persons of Moorish or Jewish ancestry within two generations were generally not allowed to enroll in
15873-661: The majority are people of Spanish descent. There is an important Spanish community mostly located in the city of San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa . There are also people from The Bay Islands who descend from British settlers (either English , Irish , or Scottish ). Another large migratory group in Honduras is the Arabs, predominantly Palestinians and to a lesser extent Lebanese . Many of these Levantine Arabs were classified as white in national censuses; around 300,000 Arabs live in Honduras. However, most Hondurans consider themselves as mestizos, regardless of their ethnic category, which
16016-686: The majority of the Spanish speakers live in Hispanic America . Nationally, Spanish is the official language—either de facto or de jure —of Argentina , Bolivia (co-official with 36 indigenous languages), Chile , Colombia , Costa Rica , Cuba , Dominican Republic , Ecuador , El Salvador , Guatemala , Honduras , Mexico (co-official with 63 indigenous languages), Nicaragua , Panama , Paraguay (co-official with Guaraní ), Peru (co-official with Quechua , Aymara , and "the other indigenous languages"), Puerto Rico (co-official with English), Uruguay , and Venezuela . Spanish language has
16159-534: The northeast region of the country to become the region with the highest proportion of whites during the Spanish colonial period albeit recent migration waves have been changing its demographic trends. Estimates of Mexico's white population differ greatly in both, methodology and percentages given, extra-official sources such as the World factbook which use the 1921 census results as the base of their estimations calculate Mexico's White population as only 9% (the results of
16302-711: The northwest of the African mainland. The Spanish spoken in the Canary Islands traces its origins back to the Castilian conquest in the 15th century , and, in addition to a resemblance to Western Andalusian speech patterns, it also features strong influence from the Spanish varieties spoken in the Americas, which in turn have also been influenced historically by Canarian Spanish. The Spanish spoken in North Africa by native bilingual speakers of Arabic or Berber who also speak Spanish as
16445-408: The notion of mixture has been downplayed. Alternately, in countries like Mexico and Brazil mixture has been emphasized as fundamental for nation-building, resulting in a large group of bi-racial mestizos , in Mexico, or tri-racial pardos , in Brazil, who are considered neither fully white nor fully non-white. Unlike in the United States (where ancestry may be used exclusively to define race), by
16588-636: The other hand, currently uses the term español in its publications. However, from 1713 to 1923, it called the language castellano . The Diccionario panhispánico de dudas (a language guide published by the Royal Spanish Academy) states that, although the Royal Spanish Academy prefers to use the term español in its publications when referring to the Spanish language, both terms— español and castellano —are regarded as synonymous and equally valid. The term castellano
16731-469: The overwhelming majority the population up until the Spanish conquest . During the colonial period , troops were sent out to the Americas by the Spanish Crown in order to protect distant colonies. Spanish folk immigrated from all regions of Spain, particularly Andalusia , Extremadura , Basque Country , Asturias , Navarra and Castile . Of the Spanish, many immigrants ultimately settled in Chile after
16874-445: The particular aspects of phenotypical variation that were worked into vital signifiers of difference during European colonial encounters with others. In many parts of Latin America, being white is more a matter of socio-economic status than specific phenotypic traits, and it is often said that in Latin America "money whitens". Within Latin America there are variations in how racial boundaries have been defined. In Argentina, for example,
17017-477: The population as indigenous and non-indigenous, rather than as White or Mestizo. Despite this, a Chilean researcher in 2015 stated that "there are no Chileans without Amerindian or European ancestry". Cities with a historically higher proportion of European immigration, such as Concepción , in south central Chile, exhibited an average middle class genepool of 75% European and 25% Indigenous DNA, while in Valparaíso
17160-485: The population as of 2010 , according to some sources, White Latin Americans constitute the second largest racial - ethnic group after mestizo people (Amerindian and European mixed ) in the region. Latin American countries have often tolerated interracial marriage since the beginning of the colonial period. White ( Spanish : blanco or güero ; Portuguese : branco ) is the self-identification of many Latin Americans in some national censuses. According to
17303-458: The population residing in the country. They were composed of 288,233 Venezuelans, 223,923 Peruvians, 179,338 Haitians, 146,582 Colombians, 107,346 Bolivians, 74,713 Argentines, 36,994 Ecuadorians, 18,185 Brazilians, 17,959 Dominicans, 15,837 Cubans and 8,975 Mexicans. This has prompted a change in the physiognomy of certain boroughs ("communes") in the country where its number is concentrated. In boroughs such as Santiago Centro and Independencia ,
17446-481: The population. Many northern Moroccans have rudimentary knowledge of Spanish, with Spanish being particularly significant in areas adjacent to Ceuta and Melilla. Spanish also has a presence in the education system of the country (through either selected education centers implementing Spain's education system, primarily located in the North, or the availability of Spanish as foreign language subject in secondary education). In Western Sahara , formerly Spanish Sahara ,
17589-468: The province of Guanacaste, revealed that the average genetic admixture was 45% European, 33% indigenous, 14.6% black and 5.8% Asian. According to the official 2007 Census in El Salvador, 12.7% of Salvadorans identified as being "white", and 86.3% as mestizo. Before the conquest it was the Central American nation with the lowest Amerindian population, due to diseases and hostility from Europeans,
17732-590: The recent 2018 Census, those mestizos and whites are included in one category ( Ladinos ), accounting 56% of population. Into the category Ladino, include part of Amerindians culturally Hispanic along people of mixed heritage, part of mixed Guatemalans could have important European ancestry or being castizo (mixed+white), specially in Metropolitan Areas and the East. The most common European ancestry in Guatemalans mixed
17875-427: The rest being scattered in smaller numbers across the globe. Other Chilean refugees settled (not ranked by order of size) in Spain, Mexico, Costa Rica , United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, New Zealand, and Italy. Many pro-Allende refugees in the 1970s fled to East Germany , including president Michelle Bachelet , who also lived in Australia. Anti-Pinochet refugees formed a large expatriate community in Europe and
18018-484: The society and culture of the Chilean middle and upper classes. The European have still preserved elements of themselves, therefore they enjoy the original European cultural practices such as the British afternoon tea and biscuits, French casseroles and coffee, German cakes and sausage, and Italian pasta and mineral waters. The cultural influences can also be seen in the architecture of the cities. The Chilean folk culture
18161-640: The southern provinces of Chile. It is estimated that 150,000 to 200,000 Chileans could have German ancestors. About 700,000 Chileans, or 5% of Chile's population, have Arab ancestry. Of these 500,000 are Palestinian descendants . Other historically significant immigrant groups include: Croatians , whose numbers today are estimated at 380,000 persons, about 2.4% of the population. 4.6% of the Chilean population has some Croatian ancestry . Over 700,000 Chileans, 4.5% of Chile's population, has British ( English , Scottish and Welsh ) origin. Between 90,000 and 120,000 Chileans are of Greek origin. Most live either in
18304-528: The term español (Spanish). According to the Royal Spanish Academy, español derives from the Occitan word espaignol and that, in turn, derives from the Vulgar Latin * hispaniolus ('of Hispania'). Hispania was the Roman name for the entire Iberian Peninsula . There are other hypotheses apart from the one suggested by the Royal Spanish Academy. Spanish philologist Ramón Menéndez Pidal suggested that
18447-444: The theories of Ramón Menéndez Pidal , local sociolects of Vulgar Latin evolved into Spanish, in the north of Iberia, in an area centered in the city of Burgos , and this dialect was later brought to the city of Toledo , where the written standard of Spanish was first developed, in the 13th century. In this formative stage, Spanish developed a strongly differing variant from its close cousin, Leonese , and, according to some authors,
18590-737: The third most used language on the Internet , after English and Chinese. Spanish is the official language of Spain . Upon the emergence of the Castilian Crown as the dominant power in the Iberian Peninsula by the end of the Middle Ages, the Romance vernacular associated with this polity became increasingly used in instances of prestige and influence, and the distinction between "Castilian" and "Spanish" started to become blurred. Hard policies imposing
18733-709: The three groups, the phenotypically "white," "mestizo," and "indigenous," would represent a genetic continuum rather than isolated groups, including the presence of some Indigenous DNA in Chileans who appear more European and some European DNA in Chileans who appear more Indigenous. A 2002 national poll revealed that a slim majority of 51.7% of Chileans stated that they believed that they possessed "indigenous blood". Some 43.4% of respondents said that they believed they had "some" Amerindian ancestry and another 8.3% believed they had "much" Amerindian ancestry, but 40.3% responded that they believed that they had no Amerindian ancestry. Despite
18876-512: The total country population. Only those that practiced their native culture or spoke their native language were considered, irrespective of their "racial purity." At the 2002 census, people that declared themselves as indigenous amounted to 4.6% of the population (692,192 people); of these, 87.3% declared themselves Mapuche. as with Chileans of other backgrounds most Mapuche show varying degrees of mixed ancestry. Some native peoples of Chile disappeared product from acculturation and miscegenation, as
19019-412: The total indigenous population, 79.8% declared themselves Mapuche; 7.2%, Aymara ; 4.1%, Diaguita ; 1.6%, Quechua ; 1.4%, Atacameño ; 0.9%, Colla ; 0.4%, Rapa Nui ; 0.1%, Kawésqar and 0.1%, Yaghan . 1.3% identified with another and 3.1% identified as indigenous but it has not been said which. The folk culture of Chile has mostly Spanish origins, especially the huaso culture of the central part of
19162-670: The total population, according to the census of 2012, with the majority being of Spanish descent. However, after the mass exodus resulting from the Cuban Revolution in 1959, Cuba's white population diminished. Today, the various records that claim to show the percentage of whites in Cuba are conflicting and uncertain; some reports (usually coming from Cuba) still report a similar-to-pre-1959 number of 65%, and others (usually from outside observers) report 40–45%. Although most white Cubans are of Spanish descent , others may have French , Portuguese, German, Italian , or Russian ancestry. During
19305-581: The whole of Spain, in contrast to las demás lenguas españolas (lit. "the other Spanish languages "). Article III reads as follows: El castellano es la lengua española oficial del Estado. ... Las demás lenguas españolas serán también oficiales en las respectivas Comunidades Autónomas... Castilian is the official Spanish language of the State. ... The other Spanish languages shall also be official in their respective Autonomous Communities... The Royal Spanish Academy ( Real Academia Española ), on
19448-582: The world. Spanish is well represented in the humanities and social sciences . Spanish is also the third most used language on the internet by number of users after English and Chinese and the second most used language by number of websites after English. Spanish is used as an official language by many international organizations , including the United Nations , European Union , Organization of American States , Union of South American Nations , Community of Latin American and Caribbean States , African Union , among others. In Spain and some other parts of
19591-581: Was developed in the cities of Toledo , in the 13th to 16th centuries, and Madrid , from the 1570s. The development of the Spanish sound system from that of Vulgar Latin exhibits most of the changes that are typical of Western Romance languages , including lenition of intervocalic consonants (thus Latin vīta > Spanish vida ). The diphthongization of Latin stressed short e and o —which occurred in open syllables in French and Italian, but not at all in Catalan or Portuguese—is found in both open and closed syllables in Spanish, as shown in
19734-604: Was distinguished by a heavy Basque influence (see Iberian Romance languages ). This distinctive dialect spread to southern Spain with the advance of the Reconquista , and meanwhile gathered a sizable lexical influence from the Arabic of Al-Andalus , much of it indirectly, through the Romance Mozarabic dialects (some 4,000 Arabic -derived words, make up around 8% of the language today). The written standard for this new language
19877-713: Was followed by a vowel that did not diphthongize. The h- , still preserved in spelling, is now silent in most varieties of the language, although in some Andalusian and Caribbean dialects, it is still aspirated in some words. Because of borrowings from Latin and neighboring Romance languages, there are many f -/ h - doublets in modern Spanish: Fernando and Hernando (both Spanish for "Ferdinand"), ferrero and herrero (both Spanish for "smith"), fierro and hierro (both Spanish for "iron"), and fondo and hondo (both words pertaining to depth in Spanish, though fondo means "bottom", while hondo means "deep"); additionally, hacer ("to make")
20020-613: Was not detectable in the studied sample. The 1750 estimates show that there were 30,863 whites, or 43.7% out of a total population of 70,625, in the colony of Santo Domingo. other estimates include 1790 with 40,000 or 32% of the population, and in 1846 with 80,000 or 48.5% of the population. The first census of 1920 reported that 24.9% identified as white. The second census, taken in 1935, covered race, religion, literacy, nationality, labor force, and urban–rural residence. The 2022 census reported that 1,611,752 or 18.7% of Dominicans 12 years old and above self identify as white . This
20163-462: Was revoked by Michel Temer after the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff . In many border towns and villages along Paraguay and Uruguay, a mixed language known as Portuñol is spoken. Equatorial Guinea is the only Spanish-speaking country located entirely in Africa, with the language introduced during the Spanish colonial period . Enshrined in the constitution as an official language (alongside French and Portuguese), Spanish features prominently in
20306-473: Was taken by Lieutenant General Alexander O'Reilly , which, according to some sources, showed 17,572 whites out of a total population of 44,883. The censuses from 1765 to 1887 were taken by the Spanish government who conducted them at irregular intervals. The 1899 census was taken by the United States War Department. Since 1910, Puerto Rico has been included in every decennial census taken by
20449-558: Was the first census since 1960 to gather data on ethnic-racial identification. White Dominicans were estimated to be 17.8% of the Dominican Republic 's population, according to a 2021 survey by the United Nations Population Fund . with the vast majority being of Spanish descent. Notable other ancestries includes French, Italian, Lebanese, German, and Portuguese. The government of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo made
#163836