Concept in Definition ABC

The concept of mestizo is a social concept that applies to certain people, those who were born as a result of the union of two people of different ethnicities. The word mestizo is precisely intended to establish the intermediate term that such a person possesses by not belong clearly and directly to either of the two ethnic groups to which their parents. The mestizo can be the son of two people of any ethnicity, that is, this name can be applied to all kinds of ethnic mixtures. However, it is used more frequently to designate the descendants of the three different ethnic groups that populated America once Europe knew it: the Europeans, the native Indians and the African blacks who were brought there as slaves.

Although this should not be the case, normally the term mestizo is used with a certain derogatory tinge towards the person with such features because it is considered that he is not pure like any of his parents. The membership to one ethnicity It precisely assumes the purity of those genes because they are descendants of other individuals who have belonged directly to that specific human community. In many cases, in addition, the notion of mestizo also assumed the considered

contamination of an ethnic group mistakenly understood as superior with another mistakenly understood as inferior (such as the mestizo son of a Spanish and one indigenous supposed to be a contaminated form of European blood).

The mestizo has played a very important in the continent American since he has been to a large extent the one in charge of populating the different regions organized by the Spanish power, in addition to perform the heaviest and most dangerous jobs because they are considered inferior to others, even much more than the indigenous or Africans. The mixture of all these ethnic groups has given different types of mestizos who each have a different name.

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