Creole

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Fermin Francisco de Carvajal Vargas, Duke of San Pedro. Criollo born in the Kingdom of Chile, Spanish Empire.

Creole is a term used since the time of the European colonization of America, applied to those born in the American continent, but with a European origin. Unlike the native, the criollo (from the Portuguese crioulo, and this from criar) was in the Spanish Empire an inhabitant born in America of parents Europeans (usually peninsular, but also of other ethnic origins), or descendants only of them.

The term criollismo is also used to designate the movement of the children of peninsulars born in Spanish America -and who supposedly sought their own identity through their native past - of their own symbols and the exaltation of everything related to the American. Their identity was strengthened as a result of the Bourbon reforms that relegated them from the main political and ecclesiastical positions in New Spain, a decisive situation for the outbreak of the insurgent movement and the consummation of independence.

In the middle of the XVIII century the Creoles of Spanish origin controlled a good part of the commerce and agrarian property, therefore that they had great economic power and great social consideration, but were displaced from the main political posts in favor of those born in Spain.

In New Spain, the law prohibited marriage between a serving Spanish peninsular official and a criolla; that is, a white woman born in America of Spanish descent. This did not prevent de facto unions between Creole women and Spanish officials from taking place.

History

The Spaniards and their descendants born in America formed the high social group in the colony. Drawing of the New Chonic and Good Governance of Philip Guamán Poma de Ayala, centuryXVI.

Creole is a word that derives from the verb «to raise»; For this reason, a Creole is a person who has been raised in a certain territory. In colonial times, everyone who had all their lineages of foreign or European origin received the adjective Creole. For example, father and mother of Spanish origin, although born outside the "metropolis"; This circumstance alone meant that the Creoles, although they might have many privileges with respect to the other "colonial castes", found themselves at a disadvantage before the prerogatives of the colonial administrators from Europe.

A significant reason is that many of these classify themselves as white. This problem occurs from the so-called countries with a native-mestizo majority to the countries with a Creole majority. One of the anthropological reasons to understand this historical phenomenon in Latin America is due to interracial relations in the colonies that served as the cultural base for the subcontinent. ^{[citation required]}

Under the definition of a criollo as a person born and raised in America and of European origin (father and mother of European lineage, for example), the first criollo should not be the conquistador and hidalgo Hernando Arias de Saavedra born in 1564 and son of Martín Suárez de Toledo and María de Sanabria Calderón, but the warlord Snorri Thorfinnsson born in 1007 as the son of Þorfinnr Karlsefni and Guðríðr Þorbjarnardóttir; He was born in Vinland, Viking territory currently located in Canada.

In the XVIII century the differences between Creoles (or American Spaniards) and peninsular Spaniards (born in Spain), because the Bourbons took away political power from the former for the benefit of the latter, naming only peninsulars in the posts. This led to an active competition, and a confrontation that increased throughout the century. Some witnesses pointed this out in the 1741s:

It does not fail to seem improper... that among people of one nation, one religion, and even of the same blood, there is so much enmity, misery and hatred, as is observed in Peru, where cities and large populations are a theater of discord and continuous opposition between Spaniards and Creoles(...) It is enough to be European or chapeton, as they call it in Peru, to declare itself contrary to criollos; and it is enough to have been born in the Indies to hate Europeans...

At the same time, throughout the XVIII century there was a confluence between indigenous people, mestizos, mulattoes, morenos, blacks, etc., that is, the so-called lower castes with the Creoles, due to the affinity that was being established between them:

The criollos, far from being hated, were respected, and many also loved; the Indians call them viraccocha, as the name of an inca of them. Born among the Indians, breastfeeded by their women, speaking their language, accustomed to their customs, rooted on the ground by the permanence of two and a half centuries and converted almost into a same people, the Creoles, I repeat, did not usually have on the Indians but a beneficial influence. Teachers of the Indians in religion, the pastors and priests, criollos for the most part, were always in conflict with the Spanish governors to protect the Indians; the houses of the Creoles were a safe asylum for those who, admitted to domestic servitude, found a very sweet and often fortunate destination. Note well, finally, that the criollos, being no more the intrepid conquerors who sacrificed everything to the thirst of gold, nor those who successively were carried by the same passion to those remote climates, are consequently more docile to the voices of nature and religion.

For this reason, after suppressing the Tupamarista uprising of 1780 in Peru, ill will on the part of the Spanish Crown began to be evidenced against the Creoles, especially due to the Cause of Oruro judged in Buenos Aires, and also due to the lawsuit filed against Dr. Juan José Segovia, born in Tacna, and Colonel Ignacio Flores, born in Quito, who had served as President of the Royal Audience of Charcas and had been Governor Mayor of La Plata (Chuquisaca or Charcas, current Sucre).

Modern usage examples

Argentina and Uruguay

In Argentina and Uruguay, countries that received a very strong immigration of Spaniards and Italians between 1880 and 1930, as well as other previous and subsequent migrations, the denomination of criollo has been documented since the XVI to indicate Caucasian natives of the country: a Spanish child born in the country was a Creole. This denomination was changing until it was used to designate the descendants of people who inhabited the country (and formed part of its society -since the indigenous peoples formed their own separate societies-) from the time before the wave of immigration, regardless of their race, thus differentiating themselves from the descendants of immigrants who arrived from the middle and especially the end of the XIX century (Mediterraneans in their majority), whose Creole descendants make up a significant portion of the Argentine population and an even larger portion of the Uruguayan population (although over time they mixed with the autochthonous Creole population and, later, with groups from most recent migrations). Due to the certain degree of miscegenation that some of the descendants of Spanish in the region had in their lineage in the XIX century, some of the criollos were not only descendants of whites, as in the original meaning of the term, but also, to a greater or lesser extent, of Amerindians and blacks (in some cases with greater ancestry from one of the these two races than white).

Brazil

In Brazil the term crioulo designates black people or mestizos of blacks. In the 19th century, slaves could be Creoles (those born in Brazil) or Africans (born in Africa, who might not speak Portuguese or know the customs of the new land). Therefore, in Brazil, the term crioulo is never used to designate white people, contrary to the rest of Latin America, except in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, bordering Argentina and Uruguay, where some people distinguish between crioulo (black or mestizo of black) and criolo (son of Europeans born in America).

Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela

In Venezuela, Ecuador and Colombia, according to the official discourse, the term criollo in vernacular speech means idyllic "of our land" and is a supposedly inclusive term that applies to all citizens, who are "criollos" without import your region of origin. According to this official line of "vernacular" racial censorship, the label "Creole" should be worn with pride because historically the Spanish and Amerindian ties and heritage are assumed de facto in a sort of miscegenation that makes the races disappear to merge them into a single alone or "creole". According to this version, from the moment of independence a Creole nation with national identity and pride was being developed. That is to say, according to the official letter, all the native legacy of Gran Colombia merges with the colonial one in the Creole.

Another use of the word criollo is for the criolla chicken, which is smaller and is eaten when preparing the sancocho de gallina criolla. Something similar occurs with the Creole duck (Cairina moschata domestica), which is the domestic duck native to tropical America, domesticated by indigenous people since pre-Columbian times. In these cases, the term Creole means vernacular or autochthonous, which is the most common meaning of the word in these latitudes.

France and Portugal

In France, the white man born in any of its colonies, even if it was not in America, was traditionally called Créole. Still in the former French colony (such as Haiti or Quebec) or in the current French dependencies (French Guyana, Martinique, Réunion, Mayotte, New Caledonia, etc.) the language based on French is still called Creole, although locally differentiated in such a way. language or forms of culture or people (almost always mestizo) in which French origins predominate.

In the former Portuguese colonies in Africa (independent in 1974) the word Creole (creol, crioulo) has tended to designate the homogenized populations of «whites» or «Caucasians» with Melano-Africans or «blacks», that is to say, those traditionally and vulgarly called «mulattoes», this is especially noticeable in Cape Verde where the entire population is myogenic of European Caucasians and Melano-Africans or «black» Africans.

Peru

In Peru the term "criollo" has followed a different course. It has various meanings, many of which have no racial, social, or ethnic value. It is generally used as a qualifying adjective for music from the coastal region, specifically with genres such as "vals criollo" or marinera or tondero, or others with strong Afro-Peruvian origins, such as festejo or others. Well-known interpreters of this music have names such as Los Embajadores Criollos, Los Troveros Criollos, Las Criollitas and others. It is also used to describe "criolla food" or typical food from the Peruvian coastal region such as "ceviche", or perhaps "chupe de camarones" or "jalea", etc.

Also in Peru it has other meanings that are very commonly used. This meaning alludes to ease and mischief in a similar way to the Argentine case, calling in Peru also this aspect "criolla mischief", "criolla viveza", "viveza", "law of the living", "criolla", etc. Example: "they made me a Creole" to say "they scammed me." According to some, this meaning of the Creole word, which is widely used and accepted in Peru, originated from the customs of the descendants of Spaniards traveling through the interior of the country where they deceived the possessions of the local inhabitants, including their daughters. women and/or material goods, trusting in the credulity of the natives, the culprits being immune from the law or justice for the existing corruption, also practiced by "criollos". However, in the town, there is a feeling of pride in calling oneself "creole" or person of the town. In this sense, the "criollo" is the common coastal man, raised in popular culture, eating Creole food and listening to Creole music, with a pride in his Spanish, Afro-Peruvian or mestizo heritage, as opposed to those of the upper classes with Europhile tendencies and lovers of foreign influences, especially from the United States.

The «hard core» of the «criollo» is restricted to the agricultural valleys of the Peruvian coast and the surrounding cities, such as Piura, Chiclayo, Trujillo, Lima and Ica. In each place it has adopted its own forms with various cultural elements, currently with a strong mestizo and brown influence in the north and a dominant African element in Lima and the Sur Chico. Since colonial times, the ethnocultural composition on the Peruvian coast has varied depending on the region. For example, the African element was concentrated in the south in the Province of Cañete and the Department of Ica or on the north coast in Lambayeque and Piura, a fact that has given these areas a unique character. In these regions there were large farms that were in the hands of descendants of Spaniards and other Europeans, as well as their artisans. The dynamics of the relationship between the European and African element in Peru deserves a more rigorous study, but it is worth mentioning that this relationship develops asymmetrically to perpetuate the white racial dominance. Far from creating integration, it results in the exclusion and marginalization of the mestizo and indigenous component due to the use of Afro-Peruvians from the coast and the cities, who are used as a shock force to protect the white against the brown and black. Those who lend themselves to their work as guachimanes (derived from watchman), apply racial selection in places of public access, such as entertainment centers, clubs, etc.

South Africa

Unlike in the Americas, the term colored is preferred in southern Africa to refer to mixed people of African and European descent. Colonization of the Cape Colony by the Dutch East India Company led to the importation of Indonesian, East African, and Southeast Asian slaves, who mixed with the Dutch colonists and indigenous population, leading to the development of a Creole population at the beginning of the 18th century. In addition, Portuguese traders mixed with African communities, in what is now Mozambique and Zimbabwe, to create the Prazeros and the Luso-Africans who were loyal to the Portuguese crown and served to further their interests in South East Africa. A legacy of this era is the numerous Portuguese words that have entered Shona Tsonga and Makonde. Today, mixed-race communities exist throughout the region, especially in South Africa, Namibia, and Zimbabwe. In Zambia's colonial era, the term Euro-African was often used, although it has largely fallen out of use in the modern era and is no longer recognized nationally. Today, mixed-race South Africans and Cape Malays form the majority of the population in the Western Cape and a plurality in the Northern Cape.

In addition to mestizos, the term mestico is used in Angola and Mozambique to refer to mestizos, who enjoyed a certain privilege during the Portuguese era.

West Africa

In Sierra Leone the mix of newly liberated black and mixed descendants of Nova Scotia and Jamaican Maroons from the western hemisphere and liberated Africans such as the Akan Bacongo Igbo and Yoruba over several generations at the turn of the century XVIII and early XIX. centuries led to the eventual creation of the aristocratic ethnic group now known as the criollos. Thoroughly Westernized in their manners and bourgeois in their methods, the Creoles established a comfortable dominance in the country through a combination of British colonial favoritism and political and economic activity. Its influence in the modern republic remains considerable, and its Krio language, an English-based creole language, is the lingua franca and the de facto national language spoken throughout the country.

The extension of commercial and religious activities of these Sierra Leoneans to neighboring Nigeria in the late 19th century and early 19th century XX, where many of them had ancestral ties, later led to the creation of a branch in that country, the Saros . Now often considered to be part of the broader Yoruba ethnicity, the Saros have been prominent in politics, law, religion, the arts, and journalism.

Portuguese Africa

The crioulos of mixed Portuguese and African descent eventually gave rise to several important ethnic groups in Africa, especially in Cape Verde Guinea-Bissau São Tomé and Príncipe Equatorial Guinea (especially the province of Annobón), Ziguinchor (Casamance), Angola Mozambique. Only a few of these groups have retained the name crioulo or variations of it:

Cape Verde

the dominant ethnic group, called Kriolus or Kriols in the local language; the language itself is also called "criollo";

Guinea-Bissau

criollos

Sao Tome and Principe

criollos

Indian Ocean

Main articles: Creole people of Mauritius and Creole people of Seychelles

See also: Mauritian Creole, Réunion Creole, and Seychelles Creole

Creole usage in the southwestern Indian Ocean islands varies by island. In Mauritius Mauritian Creoles will identify themselves based on ethnicity and religion. Mauritian Creoles are people of Mauritian descent or those who are mixed race and Christian. The Constitution of Mauritius identifies four communities, namely Hindu, Muslim, Chinese and the general population. Creoles are included in the general population category along with white Christians.

The term also indicates the same to the people of Seychelles. In Réunion the term creole applies to all people born on the island.

In all three societies, creole also refers to new languages derived from French and incorporating other languages.

Other countries

In other countries of the American continent, the qualifier Creole is given by extension to everything produced by Creoles or in the field of "Creole culture", for example: "Creole horse", "Creole cuisine", "circus Creole", "Creole sauce" or "Creole waltz"; and by extension made in the country, as a synonym for “national” and in opposition to “foreign”.

It is interesting to note that in the Anglo-Saxon countries the distinction of the «metropolitan» type vs. "Creole" since in the Anglo-American world the segregationist system (very "naturalized") has been different from that of the so-called "hipolinage" rule ("inferior" lineage): even in the United States someone is called "people of color" who has black-African ancestors and also whites, or "Indian" who is known to have Indo-American ancestors although European lineages predominate in his genealogy.

Languages of the Caribbean

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