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White Bolivians

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Bolivians of European descent
Total population
c. 548,000[1]
Regions with significant populations
Mainly in Santa Cruz and to a lesser extent the rest of the Media Luna Region
Languages
Bolivian Spanish
German (Plautdietsch, Standard German)
Bolivian Sign Language
Religion
Roman Catholicism, Anabaptism, Evangelicalism, Judaism, Irreligion
Related ethnic groups
Mestizos in Bolivia

White Bolivians or European Bolivians are Bolivian people whose ancestry lies within the continent of Europe or the Middle East, most notably Spain and Germany, and to a lesser extent, Italy, Croatia, Lebanon, and Turkey.

Bolivian people of European ancestry mostly descended from people who moved from Spain, five hundred years ago.[2] Many are not white by an American standard, but are mixed.[2] Most of them are affluent and part of the Bolivian upper class.[2]

European Bolivians are a minority ethnic group in Bolivia, accounting for 5% of the country's population. An additional 68% of the population is mestizo, having mixed European and indigenous ancestry.[1]

History

Compared to the Indigenous population, considerably fewer white and mestizo Bolivians live in poverty.[3] Conceptions of racial boundaries in Bolivia may be fluid and perceptions of race may be tied to socioeconomic status, with the possibility of a person achieving "whitening" via economic advancement. Differences in language, educational status, and employment status may also reinforce perceptions of what constitutes a person as "white", "mestizo", or "Indigenous".[3]

Census

In the 1900 official Bolivian census, people who self-identified as "Blanco" (white) composed 12.72% or 231,088 of the total population. This was the last time data on race was collected.[4]

Geographic distribution

Geographically, the white and mixed-race populations of Bolivia tend to be centered in the country's eastern lowlands. The white and mixed-race Bolivians in this region are relatively affluent compared to poorer, predominantly Indigenous regions of Bolivia.[3] In the Santa Cruz Department there is an important colony (70.000 inhabitants) of German-speaking Mennonites.[5]

Politics

White Bolivians, particularly wealthier white Bolivians, have tended to favor the right-wing opposition against the Evo Morales administration. White Bolivians tend to oppose the Morales government in part due to the shift in power towards the Indigenous population.[6]

See also

References and footnotes

  1. ^ a b "The World Factbook: Bolivia". CIA. Retrieved 14 February 2017.
  2. ^ a b c "Bolivia is Burning". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved 2019-06-01.
  3. ^ a b c "Bolivia's Regional Elections 2010" (PDF). Political Studies Association. Retrieved 2019-06-01.
  4. ^ "Censo National De La Poblacion de la Republica 1900 "Segunda parte" - (P.25-32)" (PDF). 1900. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  5. ^ "Bolivian Reforms Raise Anxiety on Mennonite Frontier". The New York Times. 21 December 2006. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  6. ^ "Morales goes back to his roots". Public Radio International. Retrieved 2019-06-01.
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