mestizo

Meanings

1. 1nouncountable

   A person in Latin America whose ancestors include both Europeans and Indigenous peoples of the Americas.

   Grammar: The feminine form is mestiza; the plural is mestizos.

   Patterns

   • a mestizo from somewhere

   Historians note that most Mexicans today are described as mestizo.

   The colonial census recorded Spaniards, Indigenous people and mestizos separately.

   Her grandfather was a mestizo from the Andean highlands.

2. 2adjectivebefore a noun

   Describing a person, culture or tradition that blends European and Indigenous American elements.

   Grammar: Usually comes before a noun: mestizo culture.

   Patterns

   • mestizo culture
   • mestizo identity

   The festival shows a rich mestizo culture in its music and food.

   The museum explores mestizo identity in Latin America.

   The mestizo architecture of the old town mixes baroque and local styles.

Word forms

Common combinations

mestizo culture

Mestizo culture shapes the cooking of the whole region.

mestizo population

The country has a large mestizo population.

mestizo identity

The novel explores mestizo identity after independence.

mestizo heritage

She is proud of her mestizo heritage.

Synonyms and how they differ

mixed-race

Mixed-race is a general modern term for any mixed ancestry, while mestizo refers specifically to European and Indigenous American roots.

mixed-heritage

Mixed-heritage is broader and can cover culture as well as ancestry, unlike the narrower mestizo.

Word family

mestiza noun

a woman of mixed European and Indigenous ancestry

mestizaje noun

the mixing of peoples and cultures in Latin America

Commonly confused: mestizo or mulatto?

Practice

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