Brief Political History of Race in Latin America

This video looks at the reasons why Latin America ended up with multiracial societies. How intermixed occurred between the Europeans, Indigenous and Black Africans and why some places ended up with larger groups of one or the other. It also looks at the migration of other two important groups, Asians and people from the Middle East.

[@DerFroschMitMaske]

As a German-French ´man who traveled and lived in Chile and Argentina for a while i find this channel to be a godsend- There's little comprehensive education about Latin american history where i'm from, and even a lot of my latino friends unfortunately seem to have been mainly taught eurocentric world history. Thank you for providing these valuable educational videos to better understand this fascinating continent and it's countries!

Thanks for watching! I did this for my classes during the pandemic originally, but I'm really happy other people have found them useful.

[@radioactivedetective6876]

Have recently discovered this channel. Appreciate your work. Keep going please

[@katherine_art05]

Wow!I appreciated your video. I learned some new things about my continent. Thank you

[@AkshatDiscoversTheWorld]

Very nice and very detailed account of immigration and intermixing across SA. Very helpful in undertanding the racial mix and perceived identities in different countries of the continent.

[@OlsenTheWonderDog]

Very well researched and presented. Well done!

[@sortingoutmyclothes8131]

I'm from Buenos Aires, Argentina. My grandfather was Bulgarian, my other grandfather was the son of Ukrainian Jews, my grandmother was the Paraguayan born daughter of a Swiss man and an Austrian woman and my other grandmother had an Italian father and an Argentinian mother, who was rich and had ties to Sarmiento, one of the founding fathers, and I know she had Basque ancestry, but she may have had indigenous and/or African ancestry too. I would like to say that although Argentinian culture, especially in the large urban centers, was very heavily influenced by Europe and its immigrants, there are still a lot of mestizos in Argentina. It's true that, phenotypically, Africans (who aren't recent immigrants) are very rare, but mestizos are pretty common, it's just that white people are also very common.

I agree. Argentina looks like it has fewer mestizos or more white people only when compared to other Latin American countries, but they still have a sizable mestizo population, no question.

[@smilingwomen3841]

@ Uruguay are the whitest country in latin America and 92 percent are White

@@smilingwomen3841 in 2011, 8% of Uruguayans called themselves black or afro-descendant. So the 92% would be correct if everyone else thought of themselves as white and not mixed and/or of other groups like Asian or indigenous.

[@thegodzillafan3000]

Your Content is great keep it up!

[@aliquezohran309]

Ok .. Amazing video, but my love goes out especially to whoever is the genius behind using Joaquin Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez Adagio 1 as the background score at 11:05 . Immediate subscribe 👌🏽 ❤

[@dcal5s]

OMG! What a find. This is a first rate review of the makeup of the Americas from a racial, cultural and socipolitical perspective. The painting of "Ham's Redemption" is a shocking bellwether of the times it was painted; although the sentiment expressed is likely still very prevalent. The historical facts and tidbits were brilliant albeit a bit fast paced. I am subscribing with the hope of seeing more presentations.

Thank you for the kinds words. It's definitely fast, because I'm trying to get in as much as possible in a very, very short period of time.

[@andrewworley4401]

Very good, thanks so much.

[@jasatotakouzeno4674]

You should do a video about the Indigenous American influence on the Philippines. I’m honestly always surprised when I keep hearing about Philippine things being not from Spanish, American, or Japanese, but from Nahuatl. For example our word for mother and father “nanay” and “tatay” come from Nahuatl. Along with vegetables like the Sayote (chayote) coming from Mexico too

[@euromayan]

Excellent graphics and drawings. Very well explained detailed history, so many details, and yet only nineteen minutes. My dna says I'm 55% indigenous and 45% european including 20% scandinavian

[@Spongebrain97]

At least when it comes to Mexicans or Mexican Americans, one of the biggest legacies of the caste system that is most visible socially is when a baby is born and usually the elders hope and pray that it comes out white or light skinned. I think everybody has at least one personal account of hearing something like this in their household or something like hearing somebody relent that a family member came out darker than they preferred 🤦‍♂️

[@gustavoc.621]

"caste system" never existed, is a 1960s pseudohistoric model no one historian support now.

[@youngarchivest9092]

Great video! Could you make a video on the animosity between Hati and the Dominican Republic?

yeah, at some point soon. I'm behind on several, but I'll add it to the queue.

[@javierperalta7648]

Where I live race is a huge taboo. People never talk about race and pretend that there is no such a thing. Just pronouncing the word 'race' will make people look at you in a weird way. I am not sure if it's good, but I Think it's definitely much better than being obsessed with race like in USA

[@cseijifja]

Because its a made up thing by europeans so they could say "we arebetter" , at least the modern iteration. Its dumb to pretend to play the game of the idiots that made it up to keep you down .

[@angelicadayanafernandez1525]

but then why does racism still exist in latin america despite race being a "social construct"

[@jaredowiszeliga8785]

@@angelicadayanafernandez1525 , “if we dont talk about it doesnt exist” unlike bad usa

[@KuroiWinter95]

@@angelicadayanafernandez1525 Classism ≠ Racism

[@tomfoley5837]

@@angelicadayanafernandez1525race as North Americans understand it due to an westernised view of race, is more to be compared class in Latin America. Blacks are à class, and whites are a class. So it’s more like classism

[@samerserhan474]

As a brazilian i can say that i am a brazilian

[@mr.nobody4529]

I feel for you bro😢

[@makaaimayaute8501]

Very interesting video. I'm from Peru, Huancayo. My mother tongue is Quechua (Runasimi). I'm 100% Native American, as per my 23&Me test. Same for other people in my area that I know who took that test. I don't see how we qualify as "Hispanic" at all.

[@damegto]

As someone with degrees in Latin American studies and Cultural Anthropology……very well done. 👍

I very much appreciate the comment.

[@mrpalaces]

Syrian and Lebanese also have a sizeable population in the Colombian Caribbean, where many are part of the local economic and political elites

[@ivan166]

Yo this underrated fr

[@Pabloto-dq3sx]

I remember hearing that aside from Brazil there was a lot of Chinese and Japanese immigrants in Peru too, around the time of the war of the pacific there were lots of Chinese working on the guano and salitre industry (under slavery).

Indeed there were. One of their descendants became one of the most famous Peruvian Presidents of recent memory, Alberto Fujimori.

[@kpg2758]

@ Not something to be really proud of

@@kpg2758 Pride has nothing to do with it, really. Even if Fujimori was the worst President in Peruvian history (and I don't think he is, given the competition) he's still notable as one of the few prominent people of Asian descent in Latin America.

[@stephenbriandeleon5119]

During the Spanish Period, Philippines almost has the same Caste System with the Latin American, Peninsulares, insulares, mestizos, illustrados (middle class natives), principalia (the descendants of the converted native tribal leaders) sangley or chinese, and lastly natives or indios.

[@radioactivedetective6876]

Who were called insulares? The difference between illustrados and indios was one of class, and not race?

[@stephenbriandeleon5119]

@@radioactivedetective6876 By the way insulares are the Spaniards who were born in the Philippines or any Spanish Colony. You are correct about the illustrados which is about class rather than race. lllustrados can came from Mestizos, Sangley, Principalia or Indios. This class of people had flourished in the mid 19th century, when the Colonial Philippines opened for world trade. The word Illustrado came from the word Enlightenment, since rich Filipinos, who can afford to study in Europe brought the enlightened ideas to the Philippines. To avoid confusion, Illustrados are any Filipinos who are educated in Europe and brought the ideas of liberalism and independence in the islands.

[@radioactivedetective6876]

@@stephenbriandeleon5119 Thanks a lot for such a clear explanation. I am from a post-colonial country myself: India. And in India we had our own old religion-based caste system - which is a horrible system. There was not a lot of marriages between Indians (of whichever caste, religious, linguistic or ethnic background) and the British colonisers during the British Raj, and the small community of people of mixed British and Indian descent (born during the colonial period) is known as the Anglo-Indian community, with no further segmentation, and they identify as Indians and not as belonging to particular regions of India. A coastal state of India, Goa, was a Portugese colony, and there are people of mixed Portugese and Indian descent, but they mostly identify as (and referred to as) Goanese i.e. in terms of the region, and not in terms of ethnic descent (Luso-Indians).

[@cseijifja]

Bit of problem.here , you use outdated preconceptions of the existance of a " caste system" , the spanish didnt have one like we understand it , certainly not in such a piramidal way , this understanding is due to anglo preconceptions about castas, mainly influenced by their indian experience, truth is that the spanish played by fair old feudalism in america , as in a peninsular , white and noble , could be very well inferior to a 100% indian native, if this one was , lest say , an elector lord of cuzco , or memeber of the royal alferazgo. Native indigenous didnt werent lesser than spanish subjects , the only ones who were above everyone (even other peninsulares ) were nobles of castille , because of the laws of feudalism. The popular casta pictures seem to have been a simple attempt at taxonomy without any pra tical nor oficialvalue nor weight , since there is both no record of such system, and plenty evidence of the reputation many natives and peninsulares( and mestizos) being treated in. Ways incompativle with supoused " castas".

Yes, feudalism, which is by definition a complex social pyramid. And what you're trying to say not very clearly in the rest of the message is why I say in the video that people "might be higher or lower in the social hierarchy depending on any number of variables including the place they lived, the colonial period in question, and the kind of work they did" and it was not "entirely dependent on a person’s skin color and to the extent that it was varied greatly across the Spanish Empire."

[@lboston4660]

as a whwite uruguayan man I approve of this video

[@franbalcal]

Why the palpable erasure of Peru, Colombia? not mentioning the asians of peru, the arabs of colombia seems like an oversight.

[@michaelruiz3104]

While most of Hispanic America is mixed race, it depends on geography. In Central/South American, it's more so mestizo/castizo, while in the Caribbean, it's more so Mulatto, Quadroon. Cuba and Puerto Rico are mostly Quadroon/Octaroon countries, while Dominican Republic is more Mulatto/Quadroon.

[@smilingwomen3841]

white are the second largest ethnic group before the Mestizo or mixed race and Cuba is 64 percent being White and Puerto rico had 25 percent had pure european Ancenstry mostly of White Cuban and White puerto rican were descendant were Spanish and Italian and French immigrant

[@matthewmann8969]

Yep

[@h.e.pennypacker4567]

Leyenda Negra much? Viva la Hispanidad! Es nuestro legado! 🙏✝️⚔️💯

Why leyenda negra?

[@gustavoc.621]

You use a portrait of Garcilaso de la Vega, but trying to talk about Inca Garcilaso de la Vega. 😂😂

[@accent1666]

How is this "political history"?? You should have called it "brief history of the ethnicities in Latin America"

If you don’t think that colonization, miscegenation and migration is political then I don’t know what to tell you.

[@accent1666]

@ you barely mention governments, what type of governments, ideologies and what they did, parties or important political figures or events and it doesn't have it Unless your definition of political is very broad

@@accent1666 colonization of the Americas was something that governments did, miscegenation was also permitted or not by various governments, all political. And migration by definition is a political thing because people go from one country to another and laws rule that. Since the whole point of the video is for it to be brief, I don't have time to explain all of that, the assumption is that the audience will understand why it is political. But clearly not everyone does.

[@cseijifja]

@ ill be honest , the tittle does lend itself to make you think its gonn a be about the national policies and parties surrounding race, in contrast to , lets say anglo apartheid or outright murdering , like inthe us or southafrica.

[@rodrigodiaz9472]

We are the descendants of the Spanish conquistadors. We are still here.

[@patriciafj9324]

Afro-descendants in Chile? I am Chilean, you were right when saying that our society is largely cantered on whiteness and rejecting their indigenous inheritance which drives me insane, but we did not have black minorities in Chile and if we did there must have been so few that were not recognised as a minority this isn't even in history books. Furthermore we don't share the slave trade history of neighbour countries since we never had the weather conditions to grow coffee, sugar cane nor bananas so they never brought black people over to work. Luckily because I have always been horrified by slavery and the way black people were kidnapped from their countries of origin, enslaved, tortured and killed, is a dark part of history that we don't have. I am of Palestinian, Indian and Spanish descent, I've never met any Chileans with black origins, or mixed, recently we have had people coming from the Caribbean countries, Venezuela, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Haiti but that is a different story. Your facts were almost right. In Chile the most racist group is always people of European descent, they think they own everything, and are super ungrateful, otherwise most mixed Chileans are cool with people of whatever colour they are. I think they are more bothered about other things rather than colour but maybe I am wrong, I hope not.

Not sure where you’re getting this. The video says: Argentina and Uruguay had a somewhat comparable narrative but UNLIKE CHILE they had a much larger afro-descendant and indigenous population.

[@patriciafj9324]

@ they had much larger, can be interpreted as also had but much more, it’s not very clear. Still Argentina doesn’t have much of an Afro-descent minority, we exchange a hell of a lot with Argentina, we share a very long border, we have the same indigenous groups down south, very large on both sides and they also have similar weather as Chile, because is the same territory. I don’t think they had a black minority from prior to the 21st century same as Chile, anyways best is to research, I suppose.

@@patriciafj9324 right, much larger. Because they did have some, not many, but definitely some. www.memoriachilena.gob.cl/602/w3-article-100668.html

[@Kwka777]

As a Brazilian I am 70%european 20%african 5%ameridian 5%midle east jew and arab

[@user-he8ws1wy6r]

I would say that Venezuela is by far the most mix-raced country in the world.

[@JUSTINHANSENQUISPE]

Brazil is the most mixed country in the world

[@user-he8ws1wy6r]

@@JUSTINHANSENQUISPE no, It's not, Venezuela is!

[@dominicanyorktalk4980]

I almost left a positive comment. You need to check your sources on the Dominican Republic.

about what exactly?

[@dominicanyorktalk4980]

@ I can write pages but I'll spare both of us. I'll address the main thing I had a problem with. I may address the rest in a video in the future. I mainly had an issue with the part where you mention that we gained independence from both Haiti and Spain but we give more importance to our independence from Haiti "in the mind of Dominicans". When Haiti occupied Santo Domingo, which was an agreement on both sides more than a hostile takeover, since the Dominican elites saw the benefits of this at the time with Haiti being in a position of power, they started imposing their will. There's a decent sized list of the restrictions they imposed, but I'll focus on 3, they forbade the use of Spanish, they closed the Catholic churches, and they closed the universities. This was a direct attack towards our Hispanic identity, which I would assume you understand why this is a problem almost 300 years after Columbus arrived. We celebrate our Independence from this regime because this was the moment in our history that we defended our Hispanic identity. We had already lived under Spain for hundreds of years and though mixed, we still descend from them so alot of our culture comes from them. To expect us to harbor the same sentiments towards Spain, whom we get most of our culture from vs Haiti, who tried to erase our culture, is absurd to say the least. We literally had to go to war, against the odds, to say that we are Hispanic today. How can any proud Hispanic/Latino not respect that?

In other words, you just repeated exactly what I said. In the DR, independence from Spain, which was definitely declared (TWICE), is of far less importance than that of independence from Haiti. This is one of the main Dominican national tenets. I don't see why you would find that controversial since you just confirmed it.

[@dominicanyorktalk4980]

​@ The issue is the reasoning you gave for it. You emphasized that the reason we give more importance to the independence from Haiti is because of their proximity and because the leaders used it as a scare tactic. I won't deny those things as factors, but the main reason is what I explained, which there was not even a hint of in your video.

@@dominicanyorktalk4980 ok, so the argument here is not that what I said was wrong ("I won't deny those as factors"), but rather that I did not include the importance of Hispanidad in the explanation. But this video is about race. The whole point is to explain why mestizaje as part of the Dominican national myth is different than other mestizajes as national myths in Latin America. Saying anything about Hispanidad wouldn't make a lot of sense, since they all had as a root.

[@guillermorojasc]

Latin american politician exist. Corruption: "and I took that personally"

[@rogeliovaldez6594]

Upon independence, 10% of mexico's population was black, but over time, it also decreased to a mere 1% and perhaps less so they themselves are also mixed. Which is fascinating bc today in the US they equate to 12% so its interesting to see how more a more people will start to consider themselves mixed or meztiso as part American racial identity in the future. similar to Latin America

[@Klipz369]

So manufactured societies like US via immigration and passing laws

[@williammoreno3866]

Dominicans berly have native genes and it's sad to see they don't embrace Africa more since they are more African.

[@dominicanyorktalk4980]

You are misinformed.

[@nebhalabir1201]

Dominicans do have a lot of indigenous genes , and the culture

[@Smiggsss]

Kidnapped by who? Other Africans who sold them?

Yeah. Later on that was the norm. In the early years, it was by the Europeans themselves.

[@josepharndt8257]

@ Initially the Portuguese occasionally kidnapped but it was mainly from arabized Berber peoples.

[@v8ctorvonhammer902]

farmland econmy napoancn war

[@tonypayne9997]

Same story different region of the world. I believe the "black africans" were the original folks and not transported.

huh? you think black africans are native to the Americas? and that they were not enslaved and forcibly transported?

[@mariiluna8949]

why is that lie always perpetuated? it's been proven time and time again that people from sub-saharan africa were forcibly transported to the americas via the transatlantic slave trade, hence, they were never native to the americas. what are you trying to say exactly in your comment?...

[@nicklaurindo1916]

Your belief has no foundation in reality and it’s offensive to the indigenous people that lived in the americas