The Races of Mexico

This is a brief history of races in Mexico. I'm no expert, of course, but I don't let that stop me. 

Mexico was first populated by tribes of Native Americans (immigrants from Asia).  The Spanish arrived and brought African slaves with them. The Spanish had an elaborate legal racial caste system. If a Spaniard married an African, the children would be mulatos, who had a higher legal status than blacks but lower than whites. If a Spaniard married an Aztec, the children would be mestizos, who had a higher status than mulatos but lower than the Caucasians.  If a mulato married a mestizo, then etc., etc. After Mexico became an independent country, the citizens junked the Spanish caste system and officially thought of themselves as a nation of mestizos.  Private prejudices continued. Today roughly 5% of all Mexicans are of purely European descent. The Vallejo family of Northern California were of Spanish descent, for example.

I used to wonder how just about any hapless American sailor in 1840 who deserted his ship in San Diego would end up marrying the daughter of the richest Mexican rancher in the area. Those sailors had blue eyes and blond hair.  They sunburned easily. The old Spanish prejudices still worked in memory. If you could arrange to get paler grandsons. . . . 

As you might guess, when the Spanish conquered California, the soldiers and settlers were mostly mestizos and mulatos. The hoity toity stayed in the comfortable ruling metropolis, Mexico City. Los Angeles was settled by Latinos who were part-black. The most famous of them was Pio Pico. the last governor of Mexican California. Without leaving town he became the citizen of three different nations: Spain, Mexico and the USA. As governor Pico had dismantled the mission system, leaving the churches to perform their religious rites but freeing the Indians and redistributing the vast church ranches. Pico became quite rich and famous in his third nation, until he was cheated out of all he owned.  He lived well into the age of photography. I don't think people said this out loud, but by 1860 American standards he was black. That may have been one reason he served as Abraham Lincoln's campaign manager in California.