Argentina has never asked about ethnicity in its censuses - except, since 2010, when it comes to Afro-Argentines and the Indigenous (together they made up 3% of the total).
But that excludes mestizos (people with at least 1/3 Indigenous blood) - so all estimates as to the % of white Argentines have always been just that: estimates. It's certainly never been "97%" - that's for sure.
I remember Encyclopedia Britannica estimating it at 85% in the '80s - and that was probably about right, at the time.
Most every Argentine you met was Italian, Spanish, and often both - plus a scattering of other European and Middle-Eastern backgrounds, and often, an Indigenous forbear or two.
But since then, there've been perhaps two million+ immigrants from Bolivia, Paraguay, and Peru - plus, since 2015, Venezuela. And these tend to be mestizo.
Add to that a sizable East Asian immigration and others, and you could easily see in the crowds these days, if you were to visit, that Argentina's more diverse than it was 30-40 years ago - and certainly not 97% white.
And nowhere is this more evident than in Buenos Aires - whose suburbs already included millions of migrants from the poorer, mestizo-majority provinces in the north.
Indeed - and contrary to what right-wing Argentines might tell you - if you look at Buenos Aires footage from the "halcyon" dictatorship days, there was already a sizable mestizo minority. The crowds were whiter - but not that much.
1981:
2022:
Like the '50s in the U.S., there's been a concerted effort in Argentine right-wing media to mythologize the Videla years (doubly absurd since Ike was a statesman, and Videla was a fascist thug who derailed the economy - polite though he was).
Thanks again for your thoughts, Judi. Always rewarding and worth getting into. Have a great Sunday, and All the Best.
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