WHO WERE THE WHITE CREOLES IN LATIN AMERICA? - HISTORY - 2025

The white Creoles were white people who were born on the American continent during the period of colonization by European powers. Creole whites consolidated as the ruling class because they maintained control of capital and far exceeded the peninsular whites.

The Spanish colonial presence in America lasted more than 400 years: from the arrival of Christopher Columbus on the island of Guanahani, in what is now the Bahamas, until at the beginning of the 20th century, they lost their last colonies to the United States: Cuba and Puerto Rico.. With respect to the Portuguese Empire, Brazil was discovered in the year 1500 and did not become independent until 1822.

Creole whites in Latin America

During this colonial period, the highest social ladder was occupied by peninsular whites, that is, whites who came from the Iberian Peninsula. They were followed by the Creole whites, who were the offspring of the peninsulars born in America. Numerically speaking, in most of the countries of the Latin American region the pardos or mestizos represented the majority of the population.

Unlike the British colonies, in the Spanish and Portuguese the miscegenation was somewhat generalized, which is why a great class of people was constituted, products of the mixture between whites, blacks and indigenous people. This social class, at the end of the colonial period, began to take ground from the Creole whites in the economic part, because they were in charge of the trades and sales.

Creole whites dominated the colonial period economically, being the great landowners of the American colonies. Among this class there was always a discontent at not being able to occupy the highest positions of power.

For this reason, the Creole whites were the ones who rebelled against the Spaniards after the Bayonne abdications and the wars of American independence began in the second decade of the 19th century.

With the independence of the different nations, the social stratification with respect to the different ethnic groups was on many occasions overcome in the legal sphere, but not in society.

Whites have continued to occupy positions of power to this day. In this sense, it is important to note that slavery was abolished in most countries in the second half of the 19th century.

Origin of social stratification

Unlike the English colonization process, in which entire families began to emigrate to the American continent, Spanish and Portuguese ships only brought men. At first, in the exploration trips there were no women, which led to the fact that the first miscegenation that occurred was that between a white man and an indigenous woman (Yépez, 2009).

Over the centuries, Spain and Portugal established the base of their colonial empire in what we now call Latin America. The whites who came to be rooted in American lands at first had no distinction with their descendants, but within a few years they began to differentiate themselves.

The term white creole was not defined from the beginning. Authors such as Burkholder prefer to use the term “native sons” and “native daughters”, because they affirm that in different latitudes of the continent different names were given to whites born in America (2013).

Drawing of Spanish Creoles published in the Peruvian Chronicle of Huamán Pama de Ayala (16th century).

Other authors such as Pietschmann conclude that the definition of Creole whites as the descendants of peninsular Spanish whites in America, although it is the most widespread, is inaccurate. For him, the Creoles are the white people whose economic and social center was in the continent (2003).

Divisions would emerge quickly, constituting various types of targets. In addition to the peninsular whites born in Spain or Portugal and the Creole whites, there were also shore whites, originally from the Canary Islands, who were mainly engaged in crafts and commerce (Yépez, 2009).

Rise to power

The 17th century was when Creole whites began to climb positions in the governmental and ecclesiastical hierarchy (Burkholder, 2013). Before, having still a reduced colonial expansion, it was easier to directly administer power by Spanish emissaries.

The number of Creole whites exceeded that of peninsular whites, so new needs were raised. The criollos already had a dominant economic power position, since they were the great owners of productive lands and owners of the great majority of slave labor in the colonies.

This economic power began to generate a dispute with the political power, which yielded to the Creoles, allowing them to gradually access most of the positions, but always reserving the most important ones for the peninsular whites.

However, the dispute was not only with the upper social class. The pardos became a majority in many of the Latin American colonies and began to dispute the position of the Creoles. The latter were opposed to the pardos being able to occupy the positions of power that they had already conquered (Yépez, 2009).

The pardos, unlike the whites, had a diminished social position, although over time they dedicated themselves to school and were able to establish their own schools and be able to attend important churches. While the dispute between Creole whites and pardos was going on, America was stirring, putting an end to the colonial empire.

Creoles and independence

Simón Bolívar, José de San Martín, José Gervasio Artigas, Bernardo O'Higgins, Antonio José de Sucre, and many more American liberators were, of course, white Creoles. This social group had always longed to be able to occupy the highest positions of power, with positions such as governor, captain general or viceroy, and this was reflected in the independence movements carried out by these heroes.

The wars of independence, according to Pérez (2010), were conflicts dominated to a greater extent by white Creoles, both on the patriot and royalist sides. At first, the patriots were suspicious of the incorporation of browns and blacks to their troops, although thinking of military purposes they gave way.

However, between peninsular and creole there were marked and specific disagreements. This can be reflected in the Decree of War to the Death signed by Simón Bolívar within the framework of the Admirable Campaign, in which he spared the lives of the Americans even if they supported the Crown, but demanded that the Europeans that if they wanted to save his life they should to work for the independence of the peoples.

Creole whites achieved independence from the American colonies and screwed themselves into different positions of power. Over the years, those who were previously considered shore whites, indigenous or brown were able to reach the highest positions. With independence, the stratifications by race continued, but they were diluted.

Bibliography

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