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And you come to that conclusion just watching people in your visits to Mexico as a tourist? wow!
Most non-Mexicans do that, especially on this board.
You would need to be very well traveled and have lived in many different regions of Mexico for years to be able to come up with such statistics.
There are at least 30 Mexicans that work in my office, with all different types of looks.
One is a Native American from Oaxaca, another is a Blonde Blue eyed woman with French and Italian heritage. Another is 6 ft tall, dark and handsome, like a telenovela star (not kidding). Another is a very small, naturally red-headed woman with red freckles, and yet another is always mistaken for being from India or Pakistan. Super diverse looks, no one looks alike.
Every single one of my friends and family members gets told continuously that they 'don't look Mexican.'
Well than, WTF is a Mexican supposed to look like?
Most non-Mexicans do that, especially on this board.
You would need to be very well traveled and have lived in many different regions of Mexico for years to be able to come up with such statistics.
There are at least 30 Mexicans that work in my office, with all different types of looks.
One is a Native American from Oaxaca, another is a Blonde Blue eyed woman with French and Italian heritage. Another is 6 ft tall, dark and handsome, like a telenovela star (not kidding). Another is a very small, naturally red-headed woman with red freckles, and yet another is always mistaken for being from India or Pakistan. Super diverse looks, no one looks alike.
Every single one of my friends and family members gets told continuously that they 'don't look Mexican.'
Well than, WTF is a Mexican supposed to look like?
This happens to myself and a lot of my family members as well, no matter their skin complexion, eye color or hair texture/color. For some reason, people are very willing to accept the diversity of places like Brazil and the USA, but can't and wont accept the diversity of Mexico. They mentally place it along countries like Japan and Finland, where all people are supposed to look alike.
This happens to myself and a lot of my family members as well, no matter their skin complexion, eye color or hair texture/color. For some reason, people are very willing to accept the diversity of places like Brazil and the USA, but can't and wont accept the diversity of Mexico. They mentally place it along countries like Japan and Finland, where all people are supposed to look alike.
Yes, and this is arrogant and wrong. Another thing that is not reflected in these comments: there is also a lot of diversity amongst the Native American groups in Mexico. Just because a Mexican is indigenous or mestizo, it also doesn't mean they all look the same. A Mayan from Chiapas has a very different look from a Zapotec from Oaxaca.
I have 2 best friends from Mexico who are very tall (5 ft 8). One has blonde hair and blue eyes from Tijuana, the other is White with dark hair and very Asian looking eyes (from Sinaloa).
People are ALWAYS perplexed by them. They always ask the blonde girl why she has a "Hispanic" last name. They swear that my other friend is part Japanese. When it is clarified that they are Mexican, they get bombarded with all types of questions and comments- How? But you are so tall, why? But you look Asian? But you look White.
This happens to myself and a lot of my family members as well, no matter their skin complexion, eye color or hair texture/color. For some reason, people are very willing to accept the diversity of places like Brazil and the USA, but can't and wont accept the diversity of Mexico. They mentally place it along countries like Japan and Finland, where all people are supposed to look alike.
Because mexico is a very homogeneous country. look at a crowd at the tube/subway and you will see it. Or look at concerts and other higher attendance events..
I found mexico very homogeneous, Its definitely not brazil or Colombia. Let alone countries like US, Canada , Australia or even Western europe, who are full of FOB's, thus the differences are way more striking.
Because mexico is a very homogeneous country. look at a crowd at the tube/subway and you will see it. Or look at concerts and other higher attendance events..
I found mexico very homogeneous, Its definitely not brazil or Colombia. Let alone countries like US, Canada , Australia or even Western europe, who are full of FOB's, thus the differences are way more striking.
My experience + reality says otherwise. All I have to do is look at my family which is incredibly diverse in appearance from northern European looking to Italian to more 'typical' mestizo to West Asian to South Asian.
I'm not claiming it has the diversity of places like Sao Paulo, Los Angeles, New York or London...but as a country it is definitely up there, whether you look at genotypes or phenotypes. Its indigenous diversity is equivalent (or more so) to the diversity found within the indigenous peoples of Europe - from Roman to Visigoth to Slavic. So even without taking into account immigration from Europe and Asia, if Mexico were 100% indigenous, it would still be one of the most diverse places on the planet - just like India and Africa.
Mexicans are definitely not homogeneous in appearance, not even close.
Because mexico is a very homogeneous country. look at a crowd at the tube/subway and you will see it. Or look at concerts and other higher attendance events..
I found mexico very homogeneous, Its definitely not brazil or Colombia. Let alone countries like US, Canada , Australia or even Western europe, who are full of FOB's, thus the differences are way more striking.
It is not a homogeneous country though, you are mistaken. Even if you were only to take into consideration the Native American groups, there is a huge diversity there. The Native American population is diverse and there are over 60 languages spoken in Mexico.
Comparing Brazil or Colombia to Mexico is not a good idea since Mexico was the cradle of large Native American civilizations, so naturally the Native American presence is more pronounced. At the same time however, there was substantial Asian and European migration to Mexico all over the country. It is not rare to find people with British, Japanese, or German last names.
My father is from Mexicali which had a substantial Chinese presence. I have cousins with Chinese heritage.
My ex-boyfriend's (from Mexico) last name was Robertson. His grandfather was from the UK.
Linda Rondstadt's German Heritage comes from her Mexican father.
Comedian Louis CK (last name Szekaly) has a Mexican father with Hungarian roots.
Salma Hayek is of Lebanese descent.
Frida Kahlo had a German father.
Mexican chef Pati Jinich is of Polish extraction.
I can go on and on- it may not be as large as in other countries, but it is there.
There is a young lady Executive in Mexico City that has my last name (no relation) and I'm 100% Hungarian.
We do get around...that's for sure and also a man in the Philipines with my last name also no relation.
I'm no claiming there is nodiversity, but the numbers are not equally distributed, you can think of many Mexicans with East Asian heritage, however they are still no more than 1%, the same way that fully european descendants are probably no more than 5%. Mexico received few immigration %wise compared to other countries in the Americas. Go to DF and most people look heavily amerindian or Euro-Mestizo.
Can we all just say it as it is and agree that all people are mixed and all people from north America and south America are native. Meaning that the Latinos whether you like to admit it or not have native blood/ancestry. Mestizo by the way is a native word and literally means mixture. I may not know the specific tribe names of the Americas but I do know latinos have every right to be recognized by the native Americans living in the U.S. as natives too. We aren't some subculture/subspecies, we are you. We should stop bickering like petty school children and recognize each other as family and band together as so.
We should stop bickering like petty school children and recognize each other as family and band together as so.
Ethnicity, like race, is a social construct. How people perceive ethnicity, both their own and that of others, can be tough to measure. There may be a future when people look at one another and see all physical difference with no more emotion than Bill has brown hair, and Harry has black hair. But there is no indication that society will move into a post racial or post ethnic future anytime soon.
In general, it does not matter whether ethnic differences reflect physical attributes of groups (skin color, facial features) or long-lasting social conventions (language, marriage within the group, cultural norms) or simple social definition (self-identification, identification by outsiders).
When people persistently identify with a particular group, they form potential interest groups that can be manipulated by political leaders, who often choose to mobilize some coalition of ethnic groups (“us”) to the exclusion of others (“them”). Politicians also sometimes can mobilize support by singling out some groups for persecution, where hatred of the minority group is complementary to some policy the politician wishes to pursue.
• African countries are the most diverse. Uganda has by far the highest ethnic diversity rating, according to the data, followed by Liberia. In fact, the world's 20 most diverse countries are all African.
• Japan and the Koreas are the most homogenous.
• European countries are ethnically homogenous.
• The Americas are often diverse. From the United States through Central America down to Brazil, the "new world" countries, maybe in part because of their histories of relatively open immigration (and, in some cases, intermingling between natives and new arrivals) tend to be pretty diverse. The exception is South America's "southern cone,"
• Wide variation in the Middle East.
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