Bolivia's Census Omits 'Mestizo' As Category
Bolivia is under a virtual curfew as census-takers count and classify the landlocked Andean nation's population in its first census in 11 years. Stirring controversy was the government decision not to include "mestizo" as a category of ethnicity.People have the option of declaring themselves members of one of 40 ethnic groups, including Afro-Bolivians. But "mestizo," or mixed-race, is not an option. Critics of President Evo Morales say he is afraid people won't identify themselves with a particular indigenous group, thus delegitimizing the government.
Source & Full Story
Need Help?
To learn how to use GeneaNet, please read the "GeneaNet First Steps" pages.
First StepsTo ask for help on any topic related to the GeneaNet website, to report a bug and to make a suggestion, please go to our forum.
ForumQuestions not related to blog notes will not be answered here. Many thanks for your comprehension.
Comments
In today's values it is generally unethical to differentiate people simply on the basis of their race. Yet it is quite acceptable to discriminate on the basis of nationality and even culture. In the Bolivian context if there is a group of people in a certain territory, who have their own culture and/or language, who are charicterised by a mixture of certain races, they could be counted as mestizos in the context of a population census, assuming the word mestizos does not have a degenerative meaning. However, incidences of such racial mixture in other parts of the country should not be classified as mestizos, as this would purely be a racial classification, which has nothing to do with any cultural grouping.