Chino (fem. china) was a casta term used in colonial Mexico to refer to people of mixed ancestry. In the eighteenth century, individuals of mixed Amerindian and African ancestry came to be called chinos.Slack, Edward R. “The Chinos in New Spain: A Corrective Lens for a Distorted Image.” Journal of World History 20, no. 1 (2009): 35-67
Chino or china is the vulgar name given to indigenous people in Argentina, Uruguay, Ecuador and Rio Grande do Sul.
Historical usage A Mexican Inquisition bigamy case in Mexico City labeled one woman variously as a china, loba ("wolf"), and parda ("dark skinned"), one example of a person shifting racial categorization.Vinson, Ben III. Before Mestizaje: The Frontiers of Race and Caste in Colonial Mexico. New York: Cambridge University Press 2018, pp. 64-65. In marriage applications where individuals had to include the names of their parents, chinos tended not to know this information.Vinson, ‘’Before Mestizaje’’, p. 249.
When painters produced in the eighteenth century formal depictions of "castes" as envisioned by members of the elite, the term chino appears with no fixed definition. These paintings show father of one racial category, mother of another, and the offspring yet a third category. In Mexican casta paintings, a ‘’chino’’ could refer to offspring of a Lobo (African + Indigenous) and Negra (pure African woman); Lobo and India (pure Indigenous woman); Mulatto (European + Negra) and an India; a Coyote and a Mulata; a Spaniard and Morisca (light-skinned woman with African ancestry); and a Chamicoyote and Indian woman.García Saiz, María Concepción. ‘’Las castas mexicanas: Un género pictórico Americano.’’ Milan: Olivetti 1989, p. 26.
Ignacio María Barreda (1777)García Sáiz, María Concepción. Las Castas Mexicanas. Olivetti 1989, 140-41Anonymous (late 18th c?)García Sáiz, María Concepción. Las Castas Mexicanas. Olivetti 1989, 180-81Español + India - Mestizo or Cholo Español + Mestiza - Castizo or cuarterón Castizo + Española - Español Criollo Negro + Española - Mulato Mulato + Española - Morisco Morisco + Española - Albina Español + Tornatrás Negro Torna atrás + India - Lobo o Zambo Indio + Loba - Chino Chino + India - Zambaiga Zambaiga + Chino - Cambujo Cambuja + Chino - Genízara Genízara + Chino - Albarazado Albarazado + Negra - Calpamula Calpamula + Albarazado - Gíbaro Gíbaro + Albarazao - Tente en el aire Mecos and Mecas, even though they are many, they are all similarEspañol con India, Mestizo Mestizo con Española, Castizo Castiza con Español, Española Español con Negra, Mulato Mulato con Española, Morisca Morisco con Española, Chino Chino con India, Salta atrás Salta atrás con Mulata, Lobo Lobo con China, Gíbaro [Jíbaro] Gíbaro con Mulata, Albarazado# Albarazado con Negra, Cambujo Cambujo con India, Sambaiga (Zambaiga) Sambaigo con Loba, Calpamulato Calpamulto con Cambuja, Tente en el aire Tente en el aire con Mulata, No te entiendo No te entiendo con India, Torna atrás
Contemporary usage In 1821 with Mexican Independence from Spain, the new nation abolished the colonial-era, legal racial categories, with unequal privileges and restrictions. The various casta terms generally fell out of popular usage and eventually a new, all-encompassing Mexican Mestizo identity emerged.
However, the use of Chino has survived in modern Mexican Spanish via the term pelo chino (Chino hair) when referring to curly hair. Although chino can mean Chinese in standard Spanish, the chino in pelo chino does not refer to Chinese people. Rather it refers to the curly hair of the Chino casta. Alluding to an intermediate hair type that is between the afro-textured hair of Africans and the straight hair of Europeans.
Calture Among the traditional festivals of the interior of Argentina and Uruguay was the festival of the election of the "Best Chinita".
There are many songs with the theme of the Chinese woman, like this tango by Cátulo Castillo:
See also Asian Mexicans, also referred to as "chinos" or "indios chinos" during the colonial era.
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