mestizas
Mixed ancestry Latin women
Mestizas are women of mixed European and Indigenous American ancestry, particularly in Latin America.
The term arose from Spanish colonial racial classification systems.
A mestiza may identify with the label as cultural heritage or reject it as a relic of colonial hierarchy.
The masculine form is mestizo; the plural mestizos can refer to mixed groups.
Colonial racial taxonomy
- encomiendaForced indigenous labor grant
- peninsularExtending into water
- criolloAmerican-born colonial Spaniard
- negroBlack, in Romance languages
conquest · colonialism · miscegenation · colorism · passing
Having two racial ancestries
- multiracialOf multiple ethnicities
- interracialBetween different ethnic groups
- hybridThing of mixed parentage
- blendedMixed into uniformity
Of two cultural backgrounds
- self-perceptionHow one views oneself
- self-identityOne's sense of oneself
- acculturationAdopting another group's customs
- self-conceptOne's own identity perception
hybridity · intersectionality · belonging · code-switching · borderlands · in-betweenness · liminality · transcultural
Descent from progenitors
- bloodlineAncestry through generations
- genealogyStudy of family descent
- descentDownward slope or lineage
- forebearsAncestral family members
roots · ancestry · inheritance · progeny · predecessors · antecedents · heritage · legacy
Fusion of different beliefs
- creolizationPidgin maturing into mother tongue
- blendingCombining into uniformity
- amalgamationUniting into one
- synthesisCombining parts into whole
casta
Colonial racial taxonomy
- encomiendaForced indigenous labor grant
- peninsularExtending into water
- criolloAmerican-born colonial Spaniard
negro · conquest · colonialism · miscegenation · colorism · passing
biracial
Having two racial ancestries
- multiracialOf multiple ethnicities
- interracialBetween different ethnic groups
- hybridThing of mixed parentage
bicultural
Of two cultural backgrounds
- self-perceptionHow one views oneself
- self-identityOne's sense of oneself
- acculturationAdopting another group's customs
self-concept · hybridity · intersectionality · belonging · code-switching · borderlands · in-betweenness · liminality · transcultural
lineage
Descent from progenitors
- bloodlineAncestry through generations
- genealogyStudy of family descent
- descentDownward slope or lineage
forebears · roots · ancestry · inheritance · progeny · predecessors · antecedents · heritage · legacy · birthright
syncretism
Fusion of different beliefs
- creolizationPidgin maturing into mother tongue
- blendingCombining into uniformity
- amalgamationUniting into one
synthesis · convergence · intermingling · fusion · bricolage
boricua
Person from Puerto Rico
- rancheraMexican folk song genre
mestizasindigenous women
Women from original inhabitants
indigenous peoples · purebloods · full-blooded · unmixed · Native Americans