Latin America's ethnic groups..who are they ?HELP HELP PLZ

I think your subject is to broad. Do you want to focus on pre-columbian ethnicity?. Ethnicity after the spaniards(sp) arrived has changed very much. Or you might want to focus on specific countries.

People usually divide pre-coumbian ethnicity into three categories, Aztec, Maya, and Inca. Although there is way more diversity than those three. In mexico alone I think there exists over 200 different Indiginous languages.

I just finished taking a Latin American Culture class, but all of the books I read were in spanish.

Thank you ..

Yea I realized the amount of information would be like HUGE if I wrote abt all of them..

I talked to my teacher abt it the other way..and I told her if i can like choose just one country, anyway...she said yes u can at last..she wants me to write abt Brazil..o_0...


Thx again..

There are a lot of people here who know a god-awful amount about Brazil, but to get help you will probably need to ask specific questions.

What would you like to know?

so... I ended workin on Mexico... i searched my ass off all over the internet to find this 0_0...anywayz..someone may use the info. i donno..so here it goes (( thanx to all who tried to help me here at able2know ^_^ )) :

The site of advanced Amerindian civilizations, Mexico came under Spanish rule for three centuries before achieving independence early in the 19th century. A devaluation of the peso in late 1994 threw Mexico into economic turmoil, triggering the worst recession in over half a century. The nation continues to make an impressive recovery. Ongoing economic and social concerns include low real wages, underemployment for a large segment of the population, inequitable income distribution, and few advancement opportunities for the largely Amerindian population in the impoverished southern states.

In this topic we will take a look at the ethnic groups that first lived on this land, but first we'll have a peek on some of the physical information about Mexico…


Geographic Location

Mexico lies just south of the United States of America (North America). To the east is the Yucatan Peninsula, with its shores in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. To the south lie Belize and Guatemala with their impressive rain forests. To the west is the Pacific Ocean and to the northwest is the peninsula of Baja California separated from the mainland by the Gulf of California or Sea of Cortes.

Area - comparative
slightly less than three times the size of Texas
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Climate
varies from tropical to desert
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Terrain
high, rugged mountains; low coastal plains; high plateaus; desert
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Elevation extremes
lowest point: Laguna Salada -10 m
highest point: Volcan Pico de Orizaba 5,700 m
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Natural resources
petroleum, silver, copper, gold, lead, zinc, natural gas, timber
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Geography - note
strategic location on southern border of US; corn (maize), one of the world's major grain crops, is thought to have originated in Mexico
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Age structure
0-14 years: 31.6%
15-64 years: 62.9%
65 years and over: 5.5%
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Ethnic groups
mestizo (Amerindian-Spanish) 60%, Amerindian or predominantly Amerindian 30%, white 9%, other 1%
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Religions
nominally Roman Catholic 89%, Protestant 6%, other 5%
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Languages
Spanish, various Mayan, Nahuatl, and other regional indigenous languages
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Government type
federal republic
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Capital
Mexico (Distrito Federal)
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National holiday
Independence Day (from Spain), 16 September (1810)
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Ethnic Diversity In Mexico

México is an ethnically diverse country. To understand México, one must understand her peoples, their history and contributions to what is the México of today. Within this section, we consider those who lived here prior to the 14th century as Indigenous Peoples - Toltec, Olmeca, Zapotec, Maya, Aztec, Huichol, Purapecha, Tarahumara, and many more. Those who arrived with the Spanish Conquest and later we identify as Immigration Peoples.

Those are all called ethnic groups; an ethnic group is a group of people who identify with one another, or are so identified by others, on the basis of a boundary that distinguishes them from other groups. This boundary may take any of a number of forms -- racial, cultural, linguistic, economic, religious, and political -- and may be more or less porous. Because of this boundary, members of an ethnic group are often presumed to be culturally or biologically similar, although this is not in fact necessarily the case.




Indigenous

México celebrates the history of its founding peoples. Some of the earlier civilizations are now thought to be the oldest in the world. Some of the archeological sites pre-date those found in Egypt. Some of the technologies used also pre-date those found elsewhere. As we develop signifant materials, we will add to this ever-growing celebration of México's Ethnic Diversity.


MAYA

The Maya make up the largest homogenous group of Indians north of Peru, inhabiting a vast area that encompasses Mexico's Yucatan peninsula and parts of the states of Tabasco and Chiapas, as well as Guatemala, Belize and parts of western Honduras and El Salvador.
While not the earliest of the great Mesoamerican civilizations, the Maya are generally considered the most brilliant of all the Classic groups. The culture's beginnings have been traced back to 1500 BC, entering the Classic period about 300 AD and flourishing between 600 and 900 AD.

Huichol

The Huichol are a hearty and enduring people numbering about 18,000, most of which live in the Jalisco and Nayarit, two rugged and mountainous states in North Central Mexico.
They are descendents of the Aztecs and are related to their Uto-Aztecan speaking cousin, the Hopi of Arizona. They are representatives of a pre-Columbian shamanic tradition which is still functioning according to the ceremonies of their remote past. Having withstood the Spanish Invasion, they are still striving to keep their culture alive and viable, despite the ever increasing physical and cultural encroachment of their Mexican neighbors.


Indigenous Peoples of Oaxaca

Oaxaca's rugged topography has played a significant role in giving rise to its amazing cultural diversity. Because individual towns and tribal groups lived in isolation from each other for long periods of time, the subsequent seclusion allowed sixteen ethno-linguistic groups to maintain their individual languages, customs and ancestral traditions intact well into the colonial era and - to some extent - to the present day. For this reason, Oaxaca is - by and large - the most ethnically complex of Mexico's thirty-one states. The Zapotec (347,000 people) and the Mixtec (241,000 people) are the two largest groups of Indians, but they make up only two parts of the big puzzle.



Indigenous Peoples of Zacatecas

Millions of Americans today look to the Mexican state of Zacatecas as their ancestral homeland. But it is very difficult to locate historical information on Zacatecas in the English language media. As a result, many Zacatecanos know little or nothing about the region in which their ancestors lived for thousands of years.


Indigenous Peoples of Jalisco

Jalisco is La Madre Patria (the Mother Country) for millions of Mexican Americans. Given this fact, it makes sense that many sons and daughters of Jalisco are curious about the cultural and linguistic roots of their indigenous ancestors. The modern state of Jalisco consists of 31,152 square miles (80,684 square kilometers) located in the west central portion of the Mexican Republic. However, the Jalisco of colonial Mexico was not an individual political entity but part of the Spanish province of Nueva Galicia, which embraced some 180,000 kilometers ranging from the Pacific Ocean to the foothills of the Sierra Madre Occidental.

Immigration

When one thinks of foreign influence within Mexico due to immigration, Spain is the first country that comes to mind. However, Mexico's cultural and ethnic fabric is woven with other foreign ethnic groups that have each contributed to the tapestry that is Mexico.
This Feature Section is devoted to exploring some of these other, lesser known, ethnic groups: where they came from; how they contributed to their new country; and what presence they have in today's modern Mexico.
We begin with the Chinese and African immigration, and over time, will add more groups.

Chinese

Just as the Chinese contributed to the development of the west in both Canada and the USA, Chinese immigration to Mexico at the turn of the 20th century contributed significantly to the development of irrigation in the Mexicali area.
The Chinese slaves and laborers who came to Mexico were actually from the Philippine slave market and many of them were originally from Borneo, Malaca, Java, and Malasia. Chinese immigration started in 1880, and their arrival was met with hostility, except from the landowners and businessmen who used their cheap labor. They settled in Mérida, in Yucatán; Mazatlán, in Sinaloa; and other states. They helped build the railroad in Yucatán in the early 1900s. The government was to oversee their movement and determined where their labor would be most advantageous.



Blacks in Mexico

To begin a discussion of the Black Experience in Mexico, it is important to establish the quantitative significance of the black slave population in the colonial era. One of the most frequent responses I get when discussing my research with Mexicans, or Americans for that matter, is "there couldn't have been more than a handful of slaves in Mexico." This assumption is made because in most parts of Mexico, today, you don't see many black people at all. The assumption is made that if there aren't many blacks in Mexico, now, there never were. As we will see, this is not entirely true.
The first African slave brought to Mexico is said to be one Juan Cortés, a slave who accompanied the conquistador Hernán Cortés in 1519. The Indians, spellbound by his dark skin, for they had never seen an African before, took him for a god! Another of the early conquistadores, Pánfilo Narvaez, brought a slave who has been credited with bringing the devastating smallpox epidemic of 1520. Mexican anthropologist Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrán estimates that there were 6 blacks who took part in the conquest of Mexico.
These early slaves were more personal servants of their masters, who may be thought of as squires. These slaves were most likely taken from Africa, then transported to Seville, where early slaves were christianized, and they probably spoke Spanish by the time they reached the New World. These slaves didn't come over on slave ships as part of an overt slave trade. The slave trade that changed the demographic face of Mexico began when King Carlos V began issuing more and more asientos, or contracts between the Crown and private slavers, in order to expedite the trans-atlantic trade. At this point, after 1519, the New World received bozales, or slaves brought directly from Africa without being christianized. The Spanish Crown would issue these asientos to foreign slavers, who would then make deals with the Portuguese, for they controlled the slave "factories" on the West African coast. Aside from these asientos, the Crown would grant licenses to merchants, government officials, conquistadores, and settlers who requested the privilege of importing slaves.



The Crown had very few problems doling out these asientos and licenses, as a direct correlation was seen between the number of slaves imported to the new colony and the colonization and economic development of the colony. For these economic reasons, the black population soared to over 20,000 by 1553. According to early census data and allowances made for escaped slaves, Aguirre Beltrán arrives at the following estimates of the black population:

Black Population in Colonial Mexico
1570 AD=20,569
1646 AD=35, 089
1742 AD=15,980

The numerical significance of these figures becomes clear when we compare them to the Spanish population of the colonial era. In the early colonial period, European immigration was extremely small--and for good reason. There were great risks and many uncertainties in the New World, and few families were willing to immigrate until some assurance of stability was demonstrated. Because of this hesitance, very few European women immigrated, thus preventing the natural growth of the Spanish population.
The point that must be made here is the fact that the black population in the early colony was by far larger than that of the Spanish. In 1570 we see that the black population is about 3 times that of the Spanish. In 1646, it is about 2.5 times as large, and in 1742, blacks still outnumber the Spanish. It is not until 1810 that Spaniards are more numerous.

In the Costa Chica, corn is clearly the most important crop, and from a young age, boys are taught the ins and outs of planting, weeding, and harvesting. Most boys accompany their fathers in the summer months, while the work falls on the fathers' shoulders during the school year. Most boys begin to dedicate themselves to farming on a full-time basis once they end their formal education, usually at about 15 years old.


Europeans
Mining and business opportunities developed in Mexico when the Spaniards were expelled after independence in the 1820s, enticing foreigners to emigrate to Mexico. Scottish, Irish, and English miners came, replacing the former Spaniards. They settled mostly in mining areas such as Zacatecas and Guanajuato. Others invested in local and national business.
Small numbers of French, Belgians, Swiss and Germans likewise came to Mexico for work opportunities.
Unlike other Europeans, Russians engaged in the fishing industry rather than industrial work. They kept aloof from the local governments, fishing along the Baja California and California coast. Some did eventually settle in the area.


Middle Easterners

From the late 1800s to the 1930s there was a major influx of Lebanese, Syrians, Turks, and others who came to Mexico to escape the turmoil that existed in their countries. Since they tended to be involved in commerce and finance, they settled in the larger cities.



That's wat I found..hope its useful...



LUST

well of course Latin America was originally settled by Native Indians (Caribs in the West Indies, Aztecs and Mayas in Mexico and Central America, Incas in South America) and then settled by the Spanish when they first discovered it (I forget what century this occurred) and then in the late 19th century, other Europeans started to immigrate. Today, for example, Argentina has a melting pot community, with a huge population of Spanish, Italians and Germans, and smaller French, English, Portuguese, Eastern European, Chinese, Japanese and Arab communities.

quite good youyourselfandyourself.

Not many people know how varied the origins of Mexican popularion are.

I think you put too little stress on the fact that the majority of Mexicans are mestizos, having both Mesoamerican and European ancestors.

My sons, for instance, have Spanish, Belgian, English, Prussian, East African, Nahuatl and Northern Mexican indian ancestry. With my daughter, you take away the Belgian, English and Prussian, add some Italian and put more Nahuatl on the mix.
On the early XXth Century, we used to call ourselves "the cosmic race".

The point about the Lebanese is important, since they are an influencial comunity (Carlos Slim, the richest Mexican and 4th richest man in the world is from Lebanese origins, so is actress Salma Hayek).

But I think you forgot the Jews, both Azkenazi -many came from Poland in the 20s and 30s- and Sefaradi. The most important TV anchorman of the late XX Century, Jacobo Zabludovski, is one of their descendants. So is my friend José Woldenberg, who led the Electoral Institute that secured democracy in the country.

As for black Mexicans, what Kansas City (or St. Louis) baseball fan does not remember Jorge Orta, and his key role in the World Series of 1985?