Descendants Of Native American Slaves In New Mexico Emerge From Obscurity

[Judi Lynn]

Descendants Of Native American Slaves In New Mexico Emerge From Obscurity
December 29, 2016·4:13 PM ET




Santo Tomas Catholic church in Abiquiu, N.M., is the site of an annual saint's day celebration in late November that includes cultural elements of the genizaros, the descendants of Native American slaves.

John Burnett/NPR


Every year in late November, the New Mexican village of Abiquiu, about an hour northwest of Santa Fe, celebrates the town saint, Santo Tomas. Townfolk file into the beautiful old adobe Catholic church to pay homage its namesake.

But this is no ordinary saint's day. Dancers at the front of the church are dressed in feathers, face paint and ankle bells that honor their forbears — captive Indian slaves called genizaros.

The dances and chants are Native American, but they don't take place on a Pueblo Indian reservation. Instead, they're performed in a genizaro community, one of several scattered across the starkly beautiful high desert of northern New Mexico.

After centuries in the shadows, this group of mixed-race New Mexicans — Hispanic and American Indian — is stepping forward to seek recognition.


http://www.npr.org/2016/12/29/505271148/descendants-of-native-american-slaves-in-new-mexico-emerge-from-obscurity

[Yupster]

1. Aren't Hispanics mostly Native American

with a small amount, if any Spanish blood in them?

Can you be a mix of Hispanic and Native-American?

I thought Hispanic was already Native- American?

[Crunchy Frog]

2. Most Hispanics are a mixture.

Some are pure Native American, and some are pure European.

[Yupster]

3. I always thought it was about

95 % Native American and 5 % other.

Even is you could trace your lineage back to the original conquistadores, they didn't bring women across with them.

As an aside, I met one of these guys in Peru. He was a descendant of the original Spanish soldier who was given the valley after the Inca conquest. In the 1970's he had to give 2/3 of his land to the farmers working it. He still kept a beautiful hill with a high end restaurant on top. He had a family museum going back to the 1500's. I got to hold real Inca weapons.

[Igel]

4. It's not just the original conquerors.

Russians, British and Irish, Germans, French, etc., also immigrated to Mexico and other places in central/S. America. Not in huge numbers, at least to Central America, but they immigrated nonetheless. And they often did bring women with them.

S. Brazil has a fairly large German population, as any teenage boy that liked to watch Xuxa would probably guess (and that would be around 98% of them).

Here's a picture of Maria da Graça Xuxa Meneghel. Remember, she's a Latina. Enjoy the racial stereotyping that goes with, "No, she can't be Latina."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:XUXA_CD1.jpg

Argentina and Chile have had large Italian and German influxes, enough to help modify the Spanish dialect that developed there.