Direct descendants of European settlers who arrived in 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).[27][28][29]
Composing from 33% to 36% of the population as of 2010[update], according to some sources,[1][2][30] 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.[31][32]White (Spanish: blanco or güero; Portuguese: branco) is the self-identification of many Latin Americans in some national censuses. According to 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.[33]
^ abCIA data from The World Factbook's Field Listing :: Ethnic groups and Field Listing :: Population, retrieved on May 09 2011. They show 191,543,213 whites from a total population of 579,092,570. For a few countries the percentage of white population is not provided as a standalone figure, and thus that datum is considered to be not available; for example, in Chile's case the CIA states "white and white-Amerindian 95.4%". Unequivocal data are given for the following: Argentina 41,769,726 * 97% white = 40,516,634; Bolivia 10,118,683 * 5% white = 505,934; Brazil 203,429,773 * 53.7% white = 109,241,788; Colombia 44,725,543 * 20% white = 8,945,109; Cuba 11,087,330 * 65.1% white = 7,217,852; Dominican Republic 9,956,648 * 16% white = 1,593,064; El Salvador 6,071,774 * 9% white = 546,460; Honduras 8,143,564 * 1% white = 81,436; Mexico 113,724,226 * 9% white = 10,235,180; Nicaragua 5,666,301 * 17% white = 963,272; Panama 3,460,462 * 10% white = 346,046; Peru 29,248,943 * 15% white = 4,387,342; Puerto Rico 3,989,133 * 76.2% white = 3,039,719; Uruguay 3,308,535 * 88% white = 2,911,511. Total white population in these countries: 191,543,213, i.e 33.07% of the region's population.
^Nuñez, Carolina; Baeta, Miriam; Sosa, Cecilia; Casalod, Yolanda; Ge, Jianye; Budowle, Bruce; Martínez-Jarreta, Begoña (December 2010). "Reconstructing the population history of Nicaragua by means of mtDNA, Y-chromosome STRs, and autosomal STR markers". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 143 (4): 591–600. doi:10.1002/ajpa.21355. PMID20721944.
^The religious profile of the Latin American countries can be seen in CIA – The World Factbook – Field Listing :: Religions (accessed 2010-02-24). As such, it is not the religious profile of white Latin Americans in particular, but is a good indication of white religious affiliation in the region's white-majority countries, especially.
^Various (2001). "Introduction". In Agustín Laó-Montes and Arlene Dávila (ed.). Mambo Montage: The Latinization of New York City. Columbia University Press. For instance, in the global chain of otherness, upper-class Euro-Latinos can be located... (p. 10)
^Chambers, Sarah C. (2003). "Little Middle Ground The Instability of a Mestizo Identity in the Andes, 18th and 19th centuries". In Nancy P. Appelbaum (ed.). Race and Nation in Modern Latin American. University of North Carolina Press. This blending of culture and genealogy is also reflected in the use of the terms "Spanish" and "white". For most of the colonial period, Americans of European descent were simply referred to as "Spaniards"; beginning in the late 18th century, the term "blanco" (white) came into increasing but not exclusive use. Even those of presumably mixed ancestry may have felt justified in claiming to be Spanish (and later white) if they participated in the dominant culture by, for example, speaking Spanish and wearing European clothing.(p. 33)
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^Lizcano Fernández, Francisco (2004). "Las etnias centroamericanas en la segunda mitad del siglo XX". Revista Mexicana del Caribe. 9 (17): 7–43. GaleA466617637.
^Schaefer, Richard T., ed. (2008). Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity and Society. Sage. p. 900. ISBN978-1-4129-2694-2. In New Spain, there was no strict idea of race (something that continued in Mexico). The Indians that had lost their connections with their communities and had adopted different cultural elements could "pass" and be considered mestizos. The same applied to blacks and castas. Rather, the factor that distinguished the various social groups was their calidad ("quality"); this concept was related to an idea of blood as conferring status, but there were also other elements, such as occupation and marriage, that could have the effect of blanqueamiento (whitening) on people and influence their upward social mobility.
^Schaefer, Richard T., ed. (2008). Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity and Society. Sage. p. 1096. ISBN978-1-4129-2694-2. The variation of racial groupings between nations is at least partially explained by an unstable coupling between historical patterns of colonization and miscegenation. First, divergent patterns of colonization may account for differences in the construction of racial groupings, as evidenced in Latin America, which was colonized primarily by the Spanish. The Spanish colonials had a longer history of tolerance of non-White racial groupings through their interactions with the Moors and North African social groups, as well as a different understanding of the rights of colonized subjects and a different pattern of economic development.
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