Are Mexicans Native Americans?

You are correct in mentioning Mexican ancestory is derived from Spanish and Native American (not just Aztecs) ancestors but they are not Native Americans. Native American is a term used to describe people that for the most part have been in the Americas from 10,000+ years ago. Mexican and Native American "races" are different. This is not to offend anyone using the terms race and the sort.......there are some that perfer to not even have the terminology as race at all. But if they do answer that way it would be incorrect.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(burritos @ May 8 2006, 04:04 PM) [snapback]251776[/snapback]</div>

There is only one "race", human (Homo sapien). Regional and pigment differences are based on latitude and geography. Everyone who lives in the Western Hemisphere from Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America to Ellsemere Island north of Greenland is "American." A "native" is a person who is born here.

What most people mean are Mexicans of Spanish or Mestizo (mixture of native born and European). I just fill out the forms to counter ignorance and racism. I write, "human".

 

Except in certain extremely isolated parts of Latin America, there are probably no pure-blooded American Indians after 500 years of interbreeding with various immigrants.

But it's not just the Hispanic/Indian ambiguity: anyone of mixed ancestry has a real quandry when filling out those forms. I think most people just pick whichever culture they identify with.

Skruse is correct when he says there is only one race of people: the human race; but these forms are usually trying to find out which cultural group (categorized as "race") you identify with. If you are 1/4 American Indian and 3/4 European, but you were born and raised on the reservation, you'll probably consider yourself Indian; but if you are 3/4 Indian and 1/4 Irish, but you were raised by your irish grandparents in New York, you'll probably consider yourself "white." (Though there is a strong historical bias to consider that the least bit of non-European ancestry trumps the European part and makes a person "non-white.")

My mother answers the "race" question with the word "never," as she does not enter races.

 

You guys are funny Lets see this argued out, on a sientific level

 

I'm both Native American (1/4) and Mexican (1/2), as well as Caucausian (1/4)~(I don't know the exact origins of my 'caucausian' ancestors unfortunately. I just choose the obligitory 'other' category when filling out forms...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(priusguy04 @ May 9 2006, 10:09 AM) [snapback]252211[/snapback]</div>

This has been discussed in detail in peer-reviewed journals such as Science, Scientific American, Science News, Nature and others. There is no argument.

With the human genome project there is no allele (specific chromosome) for "race".

No one is "caucasian" (born in the Caucasus mountains). Very few can identify where the Caucasus Mountains are (forms the boundary between Georgia - Azerbaijian and Russia, between the Black and Caspian Seas.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Erik @ May 8 2006, 06:33 PM) [snapback]251790[/snapback]</div>

And the French. Everybody forgets the French, but we wouldn't have cinco de Mayo without the French!!!

There is also a non-zero Japanese-Mexican population, a legacy of the internment camps.

 

Instead of 'Race', it should be 'Special Interest Group' on surveys, forms, and stuff.

That way, no big discussion of genetics...

 

No, they're not.

Rather they're secretly Vietnamese wating for THE SIGNAL from Hanoi.

h34r:

 

Aren't they displaced Texans?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jared2 @ May 9 2006, 07:21 PM) [snapback]252540[/snapback]</div>

Displaced Texans your referring to the Bush family ...
Experience

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(burritos @ May 8 2006, 04:04 PM) [snapback]251776[/snapback]</div>

The Spanish are white Europeans. There was a lot of intermarrying, since Spain restricted emigration to the New World (at first only men could come, and then a few wives, but single women were not allowed to emigrate).

Some Mexicans, especially around the Yucatan are proud of the Mayan heritage, but they also recognize the influence of Spanish blood. Other Mexicans, like my cousins in Los Noches, deny any Indian heritage, and consider it an insult to be called "indio".

 

Good question, I would imagine that mestizos (mixed ancestry) wouldn't classify but indios (indigenous people) perhaps would.

Surly enough there are ethnic groups that fit the same concept of native origin as the Native Americans do in USA and Canada.

I'm thinking of pre-Hispanic Nahua people (around 1 million), Tzeltals, Zapotecs, Otomi, Huichol, Mazahua, Huastecs, Tzottzils among other groups. Technically they are as native as Sioux, Cree etc. Legally I don't know.

Perhaps someone would share how law prescribes to origin beyond national boundaries.

 

Humans are all of one species, but "race" is a fuzzy defintion that has had many meanings. See Wikipedia on "race" for an interesting discussion. As for everyone on the continent being "American" that is only true if you distort the meaning of the term. In the context of filling out a form in the U.S. the term means "United States of America" not "the continent of America."

My lineage contains 1/16 Sioux, which is under the limit for qualification as a Native American. Too bad, I sure could have used some of those gambliing revenues...

 

Hi. I'm new here, but maybe I can provide some prespective on this subject since I have spent quite some time in Mexico. There are some factions of Mexicans that do despise thier Native American heritage, but this comes from a form of classism and indeed racism. Take the way that the English regarded the Colonists are the superiority complex that still premeates till this day. Many of the isolated pockets in Mexico reveal a people whose lineage can be readily and easily traced to the Native people of centuries passed. As in the United States, these people were also forced by the government into remote pockets of thier land through by force. Many different forms of Spanish are spoken and indeed, some Native dialects are also practiced, though, sadly these are dying out from either persecution of the Mexican government as in the past or more recently due to the migration of the younger generations. Having had the pleasure of working with many Mexicans who have imgraated to the Untied States, I can tell you that the use of the dialect can create some rather confused looks on what would be considered "the same language" being spoken. Again, the English language also encounters these instances till this day.

When travelling about Mexico and encountering different people from social and economic background, one can easily find Mexicans who have inherited the physical attributes more closely asscoiated with Europeans or with Native Americans. It is terribly quite sad that these insignificant differences have lead to such a terrible rate of poverty and violence in Mexico. Much of the same, perhaps to a much greater extent can be applied to the United States, as well.

As a side note, a relative of mine was recently in London when a older woman approached him.

"Excuse me Sir, but what is your nationaltiy," she asked.

"I'm Mexican-American," was the reply.

She was quite confused by this description, so he went on to explain it to her that though his grandparents were of Mexican nationality, he was born in the United States. And how the United States unfortunately groups it's races.

She shook her head and asked, "But aren't you all called Americans?"

He hesitated for a moment and reflected, "We should be."

It should be noted however that due to the year he was born in and the certifactes of birth that were available when it was filled out, his says that he is "White." In which case, as other here have pointed it out, checking off a box to describe your race is quite insane.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(fshagan @ May 9 2006, 09:40 PM) [snapback]252610[/snapback]</div>

There are many thriving native cultures in Mexico. We found that around Oaxaca and Chiapas there is a proud Zapotec heritage held by many villages. They have their own language and art forms. To the north, we ran into the Huichals and Coras with their wild psychodelic art.

Wikipedia says in Mexico there are 62 indigenous peoples, that speak 62 different languages (officially recognized as "national languagues" along with Spanish by the Mexican government), and many more dialects.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(burritos @ May 8 2006, 07:04 PM) [snapback]251776[/snapback]</div>

No

 

A lot more than I am and I'm a 12th gen American.

 

Yes they are Native American. Their ancestors came from Siberia along with the rest of the Natives that settled in the Americas 15,000 years ago. They are a different Native tribe but none of the less Native American because they are Native to North America. Mexicans are of mixed blood though that is where the term "Mestizo" comes from which means mixed blood and Mexicans are Native American and European.