Present Argentina is a mestizo country.
In spite of
the affirmations of tourist brochures that express with pride that the
Argentine Republic is populated by whites and Europeans, that there are very
few "Indians", and that the mestizos are a minority, the reality is
very different.
The
contribution of indigenous nations to the ethnic composition of the country has
been very important in most of the provinces.
The northwestern
region (Salta, Jujuy, Santiago del Estero, La Rioja, Catamarca and Tucumán) has
received a very large influence from local native cultures.
When the
Spaniards arrived in this area of America, Quechua and Colla-Aymara
constituted complex societies with a rich history and well-established
traditions. The settlers established semi-slave systems in which individuals
were forced into labor in the mines or in the service of an
"encomendero".
Under these
conditions, there was a strong miscegenation, giving rise to the appearance of
a Creole population composed of varied mixtures of natives with the lords of
Spanish origin who controlled their lives.
Many mestizos adopted Europeanizing
attitudes and behaviors and preferred to keep the surname of their Spanish
parents, because this meant a better status in colonial society.
In fact,
the main "aristocratic" families of northwestern Argentina are
constituted by mestizo roots where the indigenous component is notoriously
dominant, genetically, against the European. In the rest of the population, the
aboriginal genetic proportion is even higher.
In the
northeastern provinces, Misiones, Corrientes, northeastern Formosa, the
miscegenation took place with the indigenous Guaraní population. The Creole
inhabitants of these provinces are also strongly mestizo, not only from the
biological point of view, but also culturally. It should be noted that in
Corrientes, Misiones and Formosa, Guaraní is usually spoken along with
Spanish, and that Paraguay, a country bordering these provinces, is a fully
bilingual Spanish-Guaraní nation.
In the
southwestern and central provinces, the Mapuche and Pampa miscegenation stands
out. In Neuquén, La Pampa, Río Negro, San Luis and Southwest of Buenos Aires,
Mapuches and Pampas populations and native states were conquered only in the
1870s and 1880s.
Although originally, most of the communities were displaced to
land of low productivity, in the following years a
migratory flow generated towards the towns and cities constituting at the present
time an important contribution to the ethnic composition of the urban population
These
influences were also important in Mendoza, San Juan and in the central
provinces (Córdoba and Santa Fe).
Even in the most europeanized areas, such as
the north of Buenos Aires and Entre Ríos, the native ethnic contribution,
although in minority, is also clearly visible.
The
metropolitan region of Buenos Aires, and to a lesser extent the conurbated
areas of Rosario and Córdoba, were focal points for many immigrants at the end
of the 19th century, and the first half of the 20th century. This was due to internal
migration, which was intensified due to the processes of industrialization and
urbanization promoted during the government of Juan Domingo Perón and, to a
certain extent, by the governments that succeeded it These cities also
received an important contingent from other areas of the country.
For that
reason, Buenos Aires, as well as Rosario and Córdoba, was enriched by a
relatively high percentage of mestizo population. They arrived in the cities
with their traditional baggage on their shoulders, greatly modifying the
cultures of these urban centers.
These
mestizos of local origin were added during the last decades with those from neighboring countries: Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru and Chile. The demographic
contribution of immigrants from these Latin American countries was very
important.
The Argentines of those origins represent an important percentage of
the total population, surely more than 10% at the national level, reaching
majority proportions in certain bordering provinces (Chileans in the south,
Bolivians in the northwest, Paraguayans in the northeast).
Although it
is possible to establish as certain general facts, it is difficult to
determine the precise percentage of miscegenation of contemporary Argentina,
and even more, to define precisely how it is distributed throughout the
country.
In any
case, it can be stated with sufficient certainty that the mestizos of European
and Native American descent represent the majority of the population of the Republic.

No comments:
Post a Comment