Mexican Costume Doll: "Muneca" - "Mestiza"

Under the caste system of Spanish America and Spain, the term "mestizo" originally applied to the children resulting from the union of one European and one Amerindian parent or the children of two mestizo parents. In general, the countries believed to have a majority mestizo population today are Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Guatemala, and Paraguay. The great majority of its people are mestizos who are of mixed European and Indian ancestry and about all of them speak Spanish, be it an enchanting blend of Spanish and Indian cultures. Hundreds of years ago, Mexico was the home of great Indian civilizations. The people built cities and temples. They developed a calendar, a counting system and a form of writing. The last of these Indian empires fell to Spanish invaders in 1521. Following this conquest, Mexico remained a Spanish colony for the next 300 years. This led to widespread intermarriage and racial mixing between Spaniards and Native Americans. As late as the early 19th century, Native Americans accounted for nearly two-thirds of the population in the region. During that century, however, the racial composition of the country began to change from one that featured distinct European (Spanish) and indigenous populations, to one made up largely of mestizos-people of mixed Spanish and Native American descent. In Mexico, the degree of admixture varies with region, although population mobility in recent decades has changed this somewhat. Generally, the degree of indigenous ancestry among mestizos increases from north to south.
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