BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY Latin America and the Caribbean
Mulattoes represent a significant part of the population of various Latin American and Caribbean countries:[20] Dominican Republic (73%) (all mixed race people),[20][nb 2] Brazil (49.6% mulattoes, mestizos/mamelucos and blacks),[21] Belize (25%), Cuba (24.86%),[20] Colombia(25%),[20] Haiti (15-20%).[20]
The roughly 200,000 Africans brought to Mexico were for the most part absorbed by the mestizo populations of mixed European and Amerindian descent. The state of Guerrero once had a large population of African slaves. Other Mexican states inhabited by people with some African ancestry, along with other ancestries, include Oaxaca, Veracruz, and Yucatán.[citation needed]
According to the summary of Encyclopedia Britannica, more than 50% of Cubans are mulatto and about 40 percent of Brazilian people are mulatto/mestizo.[22]
Puerto Rico
In a 2002 genetic study of maternal and paternal direct lines of ancestry of 800 Puerto Ricans, 61% had mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from an Amerindian female ancestor, 27% inherited MtDNA from a female African ancestor and 12% had MtDNA from a female European ancestor.[23] Conversely, patrilineal direct lines, as indicated by the Y chromosome, showed that 70% of Puerto Rican males in the sample have Y chromosome DNA from a male European ancestor, 20% inherited Y-DNA from a male African ancestor, and less than 10% inherited Y-DNA from a male Amerindian ancestor.[24] As these tests measure only the DNA along the direct matrilineal and patrilineal lines of inheritance, they cannot tell with certainty what percentage of European or African ancestry any individual has.
During this whole period, Puerto Rico had laws like the Regla del Sacar or Gracias al Sacar, by which a person with African ancestry could be considered legally white if he could prove that at least one person per generation in the last four generations had also been legally white. People of black ancestry with known white lineage were classified as white, the opposite of the "one-drop rule" in the United States.[25]
Brazil
Studies carried out by the geneticist Sergio Pena conclude the average white Brazilian is 80% European, 10% Amerindian, and 10% African/black.[26] Another study, carried out by the Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research, concludes the average white Brazilian is (>70%) European.[27]
According to the IBGE 2000 census, 38.5% of Brazilians identified as pardo, i.e. of mixed ancestry.[28][29] This figure includes mulatto and other multiracial people, such as people who have European and Amerindian ancestry (called caboclos), as well as assimilated,westernized Amerindians and mestizos with some Asian ancestry. A majority of mixed-race Brazilians have all three ancestries: Amerindian, European, and African. According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics census 2006, some 42.6% of Brazilian identify as pardo.[30]
The majority of White Brazilians (48.4%) have some mixed-race ancestry (both Subsaharan African and Amerindian ancestry). The average ancestry of Afro-Brazilians who self-identified as de raça negra or de cor preta, i.e. Brazilians of Black African origin (6.9%) and not self-perceived multiracials (42.6%), is 50% European, 10% Amerindian and 40% African.
The term mulatto (mulato in Portuguese) does not carry a racial connotation and is used along with other terms, such as moreno, light-moreno and dark-moreno. These refer more to skin color and features than purely ethnicity, although they can also refer to hair color alone - e.g. "light-moreno" would be "caucasian brunette". Such terms are also used for other multiracial people in Brazil, and they are the popular terms for the pardo skin color used on the 2000 official census.[citation needed]
An autosomal DNA study, which measures total genetic contribution, of students at a school in the poor periphery of Rio de Janeiro, found that the "pardos" (including mulattoes) were genetically more than 80% European. "The results of the tests of genomic ancestry are quite different from the self made estimates of European ancestry", say the researchers. The test results showed that the proportion of European genetic ancestry was higher than students expected. The "pardos", for example, identified as 1/3 European, 1/3 African and 1/3 Amerindian before the tests.[31][32] Students classifed as white had overestimated their ratio of African and Amerindian genetic ancestry.[31]
Haiti
Mulattoes make up at least 15% of the nation's population. In Haiti history they are known as the influential groups of people who held positions in office and they having privileged over slaves though their mothers were slaves. The mulattoes have retained their elite position, based on education and social capital, which is highly evident in the political, economic and cultural hierarchy in present-day Haiti. Numerous leaders throughout Haiti's history have been mulattoes.[33] Alexandre Pétion, born to a Haitian mother and a wealthy French father, was the first President of the Republic of Haiti. His father had arranged for his education.
The struggle within Haiti between the mulattoes led by André Rigaud and the black Haitians led by Toussaint Louverture devolved into the War of the Knives.[34][35] In the early period of independence, former slaves of majority black ancestry led the government, as it was slaves who had done most of the fighting to achieve independence.
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