European Argentines (), are Argentines who have predominantly or total European ancestry (formerly called Criollos or Castizos in the viceregal era), belong to several communities which trace their origins to various migrations from Europe and which have contributed to the country's cultural and demographic variety.Sociología Argentina. by José Ingenieros. Editorial Losada, 1946. Pages 453, 469, 470. They are the descendants of colonists from Spain during the colonial period prior to 1810,Historical Dictionary of Argentina. London: Scarecrow Press, 1978. pp. 239–40. or in the majority of cases, of Spanish, Italians, French, Russians and other Europeans who arrived in the great immigration wave from the mid 19th to the mid 20th centuries, and who largely intermarried among their many nationalities during and after this wave. No recent Argentine census has included comprehensive questions on ethnicity, although numerous studies have determined that European Argentines have been a majority in the country since 1914. The majority of Argentines of European descent are descendants of Italians, Spanish, French, Germans, Polish, Russians, British, Irish, among other groups.
Distribution European Argentinians may live in any part of the country, though their proportion varies according to region. Due to the fact that the main entry point for European immigrants was the Port of Buenos Aires, they settled mainly in the central-eastern region known as the Pampas (the provinces of Buenos Aires, Santa Fe, Córdoba, Entre Ríos and La Pampa), Their presence in the north-western region (mainly in the provinces of Jujuy and Salta) is less evident due to several reasons: it was the most densely populated region of the country (mainly by Amerindian and Mestizo people) until the immigratory wave of 1857 to 1940, and it was the area where the European newcomers settled the least. During the last decades, due to internal migration from these north-western provinces and due to immigration especially from Bolivia, Peru and Paraguay (which have Amerindian and Mestizo majorities), the percentage of European Argentines in certain areas of the Greater Buenos Aires has significantly decreased as well.
Estimates
Neither official census data nor statistically significant studies exist on the precise amount or percentage of Argentines of European descent today. The Argentine government recognizes the different communities, but Argentina's National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC) does not conduct ethnic/racial censuses, nor includes questions about ethnicity.INDEC, 2010 National Census. (Spanish) See temas nuevos. The Census conducted on 27 October 2010, did include questions on Indigenous peoples (complementing the survey performed in 2005) and on Afro-descendants.
Genetic research
It is estimated that more than 30 million Argentines (about 65%) have at least one Italian forefather. Another study of the Amerindian ancestry of Argentines was headed by Argentine geneticist Daniel Corach of the University of Buenos Aires. The results of this study in which DNA from 320 individuals in 9 Argentine provinces was examined showed that 56% of these individuals had at least one Amerindian ancestor. Other studies suggest that figure could be 30%. A study on African ancestry was also conducted by the University of Buenos Aires in the city of La Plata. In this study 4.3% of the 500 study participants were shown to have some degree of African ancestry.Almost two million Argentinians have roots in Subsaharan Africa. (Spanish) by Patricio Downes. Clarín 9 June 2006. Nevertheless, it must be said here that this type of genetic studies -meant only to search for specific lineages in the mtDNA or in the Y-Chromosome, which do not recombine- may be misleading. For example, a person with seven European great-grandparents and only one Amerindian/Mestizo great-grandparent will be included in that 30% or 56%, although his/her phenotype will most probably be Caucasian.
A separate genetic study on genic admixture was conducted by Argentine and French scientists from multiple academic and scientific institutions (CONICET, UBA, Centre d'anthropologie de Toulouse). This study showed that the average contribution to Argentine ancestry was 79.9% European, 15.8% Amerindian and 4.3% African.Mezcla génica en una muestra poblacional de la ciudad de Buenos Aires. Avena, Sergio A., Goicochea, Alicia S., Rey, Jorge et al. (2006). Medicina (Buenos Aires), mar./abr. 2006, vol.66, no.2, pp. 113–118. Another similar study was conducted in 2006, and its results were also similar. A team led by Michael F. Seldin from the University of California, with members of scientific institutes from Argentina, the United States, Sweden and Guatemala, analyzed samples from 94 individuals and concluded that the average genetic structure of the Argentine population contains a 78.1% European contribution, 19.4% Amerindian contribution and 2.5% African contribution (using the Bayesian algorithm)."Argentine population genetic structure: Large variance in Amerindian contribution" by Michael F. Seldin, et al (2006). American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Volume 132, Issue 3, Pages 455–462. Published Online: 18 December 2006.
A team led by Daniel Corach conducted a new study in 2009, analyzing 246 samples from eight provinces and three different regions of the country. The results were as follows: the analysis of Y-Chromosome DNA revealed a 94.1% of European contribution (a little higher than the 90% of the 2005 study), and only 4.9% and 0.9% of Native American and Black African contribution, respectively. Mitochondrial DNA analysis again showed a great Amerindian contribution by maternal lineage, at 53.7%, with 44.3% of European contribution, and a 2% African contribution. The study of 24 autosomal markers also proved a large European contribution of 78.5%, against 17.3% of Amerindian and 4.2% Black African contributions. The samples were compared with three assumed parental populations, and the MDS analysis plot resulting showed that "most of the Argentinean samples clustered with or closest to Europeans, some appeared between Europeans and Native Americans indicating some degree of genetic admixture between these two groups, three samples clustered close to Native Americans, and no Argentinean sampled appeared close to Africans".How Argentina Became White. Magazine Discover: Science, Technology and the Future.
According to Caputo et al., 2021, the study of autosomal DIPs show that the genetic contribution is 77.8% European, 17.9% Amerindian and 4.2% African. The X-DIPs matrilineal show 52.9% European, 39.6% Amerindian, and 7.5% African. Olivas et al., 2017, Nature: 84,1% European and 12,8% Amerindian. Homburguer et al., 2015, PLOS One Genetics: 67% European, 28% Amerindian, 4% African and 1.4% Asian. Genera (2022): 85% Caucasian (74% European + 11% Middle East), 13% Amerindian and 1% African. According to Seldin et al., 2006, American Journal of Physical Anthropology, the genetic structure of Argentina would be: 78.0% European, 19.4% Amerindian and 2.5% African. Using other methods it was found that it could be: 80.2% European, 18.1% Amerindian and 1.7% African. In the work of Corach et al. the authors say that "Argentineans carried a large fraction of European genetic heritage in their Y-chromosomal (94.1%) and autosomal (78.5%) DNA, but their mitochondrial gene pool is mostly of Native American ancestry (53.7%); instead, African heritage was small in all three genetic systems (<4%)". Avena et al., 2012, PLOS One Genetics: 65% European, 31% Amerindian, and 4% African. Buenos Aires Province: 76% European and 24% others. South Zone (Chubut Province): 54% European and 46% others. Northeast Zone (Misiones, Corrientes, Chaco & Formosa provinces): 54% European and 46% others. Northwest Zone (Salta Province): 33% European and 67% others. Other studies indicate that the genetic composition between regions would be: Central Zone: 81% European, 15% Amerindian and 4% African South Zone: 68% European, 28% Amerindian and 4% African Northeast Zone: 79% European, 17% Amerindian and 4% African Northwest Zone: 55% European, 35% Amerindian and 10% African According to the study by María Laura Catelli et al., 2011. The Native American component observed in the urban populations was 66%, 41%, and 70% in South, Central, and North Argentina, respectively Neide Maria de Oliveira Godinho, 2008, at the University of Brasília: 60% European, 31% Amerindian and 9% African. National Geographic: 61% Caucasian (52% European + 9% Middle East/North Africa), 27% Amerindian ancestry and 9% African. According to Norma Pérez Martín, 2007, at least 56% of Argentines would have indigenous ancestry.
History
Colonial and post-independence period The presence of European people in the Argentine territory began in 1516, when Spanish Conquistador Juan Díaz de Solís explored the Río de la Plata. In 1527, Sebastian Cabot founded the fort of Sancti Spiritus, near Coronda, Santa Fe; this was the first Spanish settlement on Argentine soil. The process of Spanish occupation continued with expeditions coming from Upper Peru (present-day Bolivia), that founded Santiago del Estero in 1553, San Miguel de Tucumán in 1565 and Córdoba in 1573, and from Chile, which founded Mendoza in 1561 and San Juan in 1562. Other Spanish expeditions founded the cities of Santa Fe (1573), Buenos Aires (1580), and Corrientes (1588).
It was not until the creation of the Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata in 1776, that the first censuses with classification into castas were conducted. The 1778 Census ordered by viceroy Juan José de Vértiz in Buenos Aires revealed that, of a total population of 37,130 inhabitants, the Spaniards and Criollos numbered 25,451, or 68.55% of the total. Another census carried out in the Corregimiento de Cuyo in 1777 showed that the Spaniards and Criollos numbered 4,491 (or 51.24%) out of a population of 8,765 inhabitants. In Córdoba (city and countryside) the Spanish/Criollo people comprised 39.36% (about 14,170) of 36,000 inhabitants.Revisionistas. La Otra Historia de los Argentinos Source: Argentina: de la Conquista a la Independencia. by C. S. Assadourian – C. Beato – J. C. Chiaramonte. Ed. Hyspamérica, Buenos Aires. (1986)
According to data from the Argentine government in 1810, about 6,000 Spanish lived in the territory of the United Provinces of Río de la Plata Spanish, of a total population of around 700,000 inhabitants. This small number indicates that the presence of people with European ancestors was very small, and a large number of Criollos were mixed with indigenous and African mothers, although the fact was often hidden; in this regard, for example, according to researcher José Ignacio García Hamilton the Liberator, José de San Martín, would be mestizo.
Nevertheless, these censuses were generally restricted to the cities and the surrounding rural areas, so little is known about the racial composition of large areas of the Viceroyalty, though it is supposed that Spaniards and Criollos were always a minority, with the other castas comprising the majority. It is worth noting that, since a person who was classified as Peninsular or Criollo had access to more privileges in the colonial society, many Castizos (resulting from the union of a Spanish and a mestizo) purchased their limpieza de sangre ("purity of blood").