Mestizo
Representation of Mestizos during the Latin American colonial period
Mestizo (Port. MestiÃÂço) is a term of Spanish origin describing peoples of mixed European and Amerindian racial descent. The feminine form is mestiza.
In colonial Latin America and Spain, the term originally referred to the children of one European and one Amerindian parent, but today refers to all people with a significant amount of both European and Amerindian ancestry in Latin America.
Mestizos officially make up the majority of the populations of Chile (90%), Colombia (58%), Ecuador (65%), El Salvador (94%), Honduras* (90%), Mexico* (60%), Nicaragua (69%), Panama* (70%), Paraguay (95%) and Venezuela (67%).
For other Latin American countries where mestizos don't constitute a majority, they nonetheless represent a significant portion of their populations; Argentina (13%), Belize (44%), Bolivia (30%), Brazil (aprox. 12%), Uruguay (8%), Peru (37%). The possible exceptions for this would be Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Although some Mestizos, and even a few full-blooded Amerindians, did once represent a portion of the population in the latter two countries, they were absorbed by the mulatto populations there.
Many Americans of Hispanic and/or Latino origin identify themselves as mestizos as well, particularly those who identify as Chicano.
In the colonial Philippines, the term mestizo (Tagl. & Filp. mestiso) was freely used to refer to all Filipinos of any mixed racial descent, and not just those of Malay/Chinese or Malay/Spanish ancestry. The feminine form is also mestiza (Tagl. & Filp. mestisa).
Colloquially, however, the term is often employed to describe any unmixed Filipino of a lighter skin complexion, especially when used in it's vernacular form of "Tisoy", from [mes]TISOY. Compare with "Pinoy" from [pili]PINOY.
All types of mestizos combined, constitute only around 2% of the Filipino population.
(*) In Honduras, and to some degree in Mexico, the mestizo population has absorbed the presence of Africans who were taken there as slaves during the colonial era. In Panama, the mestizos have also absorbed some of the African strain present in that country.