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I have a bunch of reasons but literally it is the growth patterns of the body structure and various dialect of Spanish as well. Imagination plays a huge part.
No matter how many times I tell white Americans (and even Brits) that I am Mexican of mestizo descent: they never accept it since they association it with full Amerindian looks, dark brown skin, and short stature. Me being average height, ambigous looking, and light brown/tan in complexion causes Americans to look at me with both wonderment and disgust (the TSA and Israeli agents often mistake me as Arab or Sephardi Jewish when I am neither: they get angry with their mistake that I get the Muslim or frisk treatment). I had people only wanted to befriend me because they thought I was "insert" race and then breaking up the friendship once they finally found it and realize I am Mexixan.....
It gets rather annoying.....
Lots of Mexicans have ancestry from the Middle East. Most Americans are not aware of anything going on outside of their countries borders. I wouldn't let it bother you
I am a surprised at how many obese people you see in Mexico.
Mexicans have Asian looking features but darker skin, I didn't see many Spanish types in Mexico other than in some random well off places around Mexico City.
I find that Mexicans are definitely more like Native Americans, both are even affected by high obesity rates.
Americans also have high obesity rates. At most the average American is like 1-2% indian. I don't think that is why, I think it is the diet of our countries.
I have been told by people at bars here in the states that Jalisco is full of people with blonde hair and blue eyes. The guy telling me this was from there. He did not have those features but he swore on it.
It is well known the average Northern Mexican is castizo or Spaniard. Some do have darker skin but they often are much taller and have much more European features than Southern Mexicans or Mexican Indians. They almost look like Cherokee Indians sometimes.
As a whole probably less than 25% of Mexicans are Castizo or Spanish. There are towns in Texas that are way less white than that. Northern Mexico might be whiter than south Texas.
I have been told by people at bars here in the states that Jalisco is full of people with blonde hair and blue eyes. The guy telling me this was from there. He did not have those features but he swore on it.
My insurance agent is from Guadalajara, and could easily pass for Irish.
Red hair, milk white skin, blue eyes.
When she began speaking Spanish I guessed Monterrey, wrong!.
This is the same question I have been asking myself all the time. People is the US think that if your are from Mexico or any other Latinamerican country then you are not "White", but "Hispanic" which is completely erroneous as the term "Hispanic" signifies just ethnicity or culture but not race like most people in the US seem to think.
I am for example 2nd generation born Mexican-American. My parents are from a town bordering the state of Jalisco in Northwestern Michoacan. Phenotypically I look like a Mediterranean Southern European like my parents and most of my family members. People that don't know me or where I am from, always assume I am "Italian" or even "Greek". The reason why is because we have mostly Spanish/European ancestry. In my genealogical family tree I have been able to go back to my ancestors from the New Spain (Back when Mexico was a providence of Spain, before 1810), in this documents I have been able to discover, on both sides of family, the vast majority of my ancestors were classify as Spanish in marriage and baptism documents I found (In the other words, they were people of full or predominantly Spanish/European ancestry), some small amount of my ancestors were of Mestizo origin (Mixed between Spanish/European and Native). Also, in some occasions I was able to go back all the way to Spain in some lines of family ancestry.
What I am getting at by sharing this personal information about my family ancestry is that just like me, there's plenty of Mexicans or Mexican-Americans that have predominantly Spanish/European ancestry, and therefore they could be consider "White". This is particularly true with Mexicans from Western Mexico like Jalisco or Northern Mexico like Nuevo Leon or Sonora who have more European heritage and could pass as White. Just like people like Johnny Deep that have some Native in them, but are still consider White because of their predominantly European ancestry and appearance.
If you go to places like los Altos de Jalisco or many places in Sonora you will see plenty of "White" Mexicans and many also have light colored hair with blue or green eyes, but this type of White Mexicans is not the most common. The vast majority of us "White" Mexicans are of Southern European stock, because of the huge influence that Spain had in Mexico for many years, so for that reason many of us have more of Mediterranean phenotype with brown-black hair and hazel-brown eyes (Though I think light brown eyes are the most common among White Mexicans ) and with pale-olive skin. Is just like the Spaniards or other Southern Europeans like the Italians, they don't look like your stereotypical White Nordic Anglo of British descent, but they are still consider part of the "White" race.
Furthermore, I think it doesn't help either that people in the US seem to stereotype Mexicans as being brown skin people as most Mexicans that come to the US are usually from Central and Southern parts of Mexico where people are usually more Native Indigenous in ancestry and appearance, that's why when they think of Mexicans they automatically think is referring to someone that is not White. Even though there's a lot of us Mexicans with mostly European ancestry that fall under the White classification.
In San Diego people think and/or say Mexicans are a White bunch?
In Southern California (where I live), Mexicans and Central Americans are usually just lumped together as Hispanics, without reference to race.
I'd guess that the average person in this area would hesitate about saying Mexicans/Hispanics are white. If pressed, most would say they are mixed race.
In Southern California (where I live), Mexicans and Central Americans are usually just lumped together as Hispanics, without reference to race.
I'd guess that the average person in this area would hesitate about saying Mexicans/Hispanics are white. If pressed, most would say they are mixed race.
Makes sense.
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