''Chino'' (fem. ''china'') was a ''

casta () is a term which means "Lineage (anthropology), lineage" in Spanish and Portuguese and has historically been used as a racial and social identifier. In the context of the Spanish America, Spanish Empire in the Americas, the term also refer ...

'' term used in

colonial Mexico Colonial or The Colonial may refer to: * Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology) Architecture * American colonial architecture * French colonial architecture * Spanish colonial architecture Automobiles * C ...

to refer to people of mixed ancestry. In the eighteenth century, individuals of mixed

Amerindian In the Americas, Indigenous peoples comprise the two continents' pre-Columbian inhabitants, as well as the ethnic groups that identify with them in the 15th century, as well as the ethnic groups that identify with the pre-Columbian population of ...

and African ancestry came to be called ''chinos''.

Historical usage

Mexican Inquisition The Mexican Inquisition was an extension of the Spanish Inquisition into New Spain. The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire was not only a political event for the Spanish, but a religious event as well. In the early 16th century, the Protesta ...

bigamy case in Mexico City labeled one woman variously as a ''china'', '' loba'' ("wolf"), and '' parda'' ("dark skinned"), one example of a person shifting racial categorization. In marriage applications where individuals had to include the names of their parents, ''chinos'' tended not to know this information. When painters produced in the eighteenth century formal depictions of "castes" as envisioned by members of the elite, the term ''chino'' appears with no fixed definition. These paintings show father of one racial category, mother of another, and the offspring yet a third category. In Mexican casta paintings, a ‘’chino’’ could refer to offspring of a ''Lobo'' (African + Indigenous) and ''Negra'' (pure African woman); ''Lobo'' and ''India'' (pure Indigenous woman);

Mulatto ( , ) is a Race (human categorization), racial classification that refers to people of mixed Sub-Saharan African, African and Ethnic groups in Europe, European ancestry only. When speaking or writing about a singular woman in English, the ...

(European + Negra) and an India; a ''

Coyote The coyote (''Canis latrans''), also known as the American jackal, prairie wolf, or brush wolf, is a species of canis, canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the Wolf, gray wolf, and slightly smaller than the c ...

'' and a Mulata; a Spaniard and Morisca (light-skinned woman with African ancestry); and a ''Chamicoyote'' and Indian woman.García Saiz, María Concepción. ‘’Las castas mexicanas: Un género pictórico Americano.’’ Milan: Olivetti 1989, p. 26.

Contemporary usage

In 1821 with

Mexican Independence The Mexican War of Independence (, 16 September 1810 – 27 September 1821) was an armed conflict and political process resulting in Mexico's independence from the Spanish Empire. It was not a single, coherent event, but local and regional ...

from Spain, the new nation abolished the colonial-era, legal racial categories, with unequal privileges and restrictions. The various casta terms generally fell out of popular usage and eventually a new, all-encompassing Mexican Mestizo identity emerged. However, the use of ''Chino'' has survived in modern

Mexican Spanish Mexican Spanish () is the variety of dialects and sociolects of the Spanish language spoken in Mexico and its bordering regions. Mexico has the largest number of Spanish speakers, more than double any other country in the world. Spanish is spo ...

via the term ''pelo chino'' (Chino hair) when referring to

curly hair Hair is a protein filament that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Hair is one of the defining characteristics of mammals. The human body, apart from areas of glabrous skin, is covered in follicles which produce thick terminal and fin ...

. Although ''chino'' can mean Chinese in standard Spanish, the ''chino'' in ''pelo chino'' does not refer to

Chinese people The Chinese people, or simply Chinese, are people or ethnic groups identified with Greater China, China, usually through ethnicity, nationality, citizenship, or other affiliation. Chinese people are known as Zhongguoren () or as Huaren () by ...

. Rather it refers to the curly hair of the Chino casta. Alluding to an intermediate hair type that is between the

afro-textured hair Kinky hair is a human hair texture prevalent in the Indigenous peoples of Sub-Saharan Africa and Melanesia. Each strand of this hair type grows in a repeating pattern of small contiguous kinks which can be classified as tight twists and sharp fol ...

of Africans and the straight hair of Europeans.

References

{{Reflist African–Native American relations Afro-Indigenous peoples of North America African diaspora in Mexico Indigenous peoples in Mexico Latin American caste system Spanish colonization of the Americas Interracial marriage

Historical usage

Contemporary usage

See also

References