In Hispanic America, criollo (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈkɾjoʝo]) is a term used originally to describe people of full Spanish descent born in the viceroyalties. In different Latin American countries, the word has come to have different meanings, mostly referring to the local-born majority. Historically, they have been misportrayed as a social class in the hierarchy of the overseas colonies established by Spain beginning in the 16th century, especially in Hispanic America. They were locally-born people–almost always of Spanish ancestry, but also sometimes of other European ethnic backgrounds.[1][2]
Their identity was strengthened as a result of the Bourbon reforms of 1700, which changed the Spanish Empire's policies toward its colonies and led to tensions between criollos and peninsulares.[3] The growth of local criollo political and economic strength in the separate colonies, coupled with their global geographic distribution, led them to each evolve separate (both from each other and Spain) organic national identities and viewpoints. During the Spanish American Wars of Independence, criollos like Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín became the main supporters of independence from Spanish rule in their respective countries. The word is used today in some countries as an adjective defining something local or very typical of a particular Latin American country.[4]
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The word criollo and its Portuguese cognate crioulo are believed by some scholars, including the eminent Mexican anthropologist Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrán, to derive from the Spanish/Portuguese verb criar, meaning "to breed" or "to raise"; however, no evidence supports this derivation in early Spanish literature discussing the origin of the word.[5] In Spanish colonies, an español criollo was an ethnic Spaniard who had been born in the colonies, as opposed to an español peninsular born in Spain.[6]
Spaniards born in the Spanish East Indies were called insulares. Whites born in colonial Brazil, with both parents born in the Iberian Peninsula, were known as mazombos.
Europeans began arriving in Latin America during the Spanish conquest; and during the colonial period most European immigration was Spanish. In the 19th and 20th centuries millions of European and European-derived populations from North and South America did immigrate to the region.[7] According to church and censal registers for Acatzingo in 1792, during colonial times, 73% of Spanish men married with Spanish women.[8] Ideological narratives have often portrayed criollos as a "pure Spanish" people, mostly men, who were all part of a small powerful elite. However, Spaniards were often the most numerous ethnic group in the colonial cities,[9][10] and there were menial workers and people in poverty who were of Spanish origin throughout all of Latin America.[8]
The criollos allowed a syncretism in their culture and gastronomy, and they, in general, felt more identified with the territory where they were born than with the Iberian peninsula.[citation needed] Evidence is their authorship of works demonstrating an attachment to and pride in the natives and their history. They sometimes criticized the crimes of the conquistadores, often denouncing and defending natives from abuse. In the colony's last two centuries criollos rebelled in response to the harsh suppression of Indigenous uprisings. They allowed the natives and the mestizos (indigenous/European mixed) to be schooled in the universities and art schools, and many natives and mestizos were actually notable painters and architects, mostly in the Andes, but also in Mexico.
The mixed religious or secular music appears since the 16th century in Spanish and indigenous languages. Baroque music is imported from Spain but with European and African instruments (such as drums and congas) appears. The Spanish also introduce a wider musical scale than the indigenous pentatonic, and a melodic and poetic repertoire, transmitted by writings such as songbooks, common of it is the sung voice, common in the European baroque music, the mixed aesthetics are the fruit of diverse contributions indigenous, African and especially, Spanish and European. Instruments introduced by the Spanish are the chirimías, sackbuts, dulcians, orlos, bugles, violas, guitars, violins, harps, organs, etc., along with percussions (that can be indigenous or African), everything converges on music heard by everyone. The Dominican Diego Durán in 1570 writes, "All the peoples have parties, and therefore it is unthinkable to remove them (because it is impossible and because it is not convenient either)", himself parade like the natives with a bouquet of flowers at a Christian party that coincides with the celebration of Tezcatlipoca in Mexico. The Jesuits develop with great success a "pedagogy of theatricality", with this the Society of Jesus attracts the natives and blacks to the church, where children learn to play European instruments. In Quito (1609): "there were many dances of tall and small Indigenous, and there was no lack of Moscas Indigenous who danced in the manner of the New Kingdom [European] (...) and dances of Spaniards and blacks and other dances of the Indigenous must dance before the Blessed Sacrament and in front of the Virgin Mary and the saints at parties and Easter, if they don't do it then they are punished". The well-known Zambra mora was commonly danced by blacks, to the sound of castanets and drums. The Spanish Sarabande was danced by whites and blacks. Blacks also have their chiefs. In these local events, the brotherhoods of the Congos give rise to the Congadas (Brazil, Caribbean).[11]
Actually, there were no relevant black artists during the colony; also, one must consider the fact that many of the pure blacks were slaves, but the Law of Coartación or "slave law" was created since the 16th century,[12] reaching its maximum peak in the 18th century, which made the black slaves to buy their freedom, through periodic payments to their owner, which eventually led to freedom.[13][14] Others were freed and purchased by family members or allied whites.[12] It was a consuetudinary act in Spanish America; it allowed the appearance of a large population of free blacks in all of the territory. Freedom could also be obtained through baptism, with the white recognizing his illegitimate children; his word was sufficient for the newborn child to be declared free.[12] Legal freedom was more common in the cities and towns than in the countryside.[12] Also, from the late 1600s to the 19th century, the Spanish encouraged slaves from the British colonies and the United States to come to Spanish Florida as refuge; King Charles II of Spain and his court issued a royal decree freeing all slaves who fled to Spanish Florida and accepted Catholic conversion and baptism (since 1690),[15][16] most went to the area around St. Augustine, but escaped slaves also reached Pensacola and Cuba.[15] Also, a substantial number of blacks from Haiti (a French colony) arrived as refugees to Spanish Louisiana because of these greater freedoms.[17] The Spanish Santa Teresa de Mose (Florida) became the first legally sanctioned free black town in the present-day United States.[16] The popularity of the Law of coartación resulted in a large population of free black people in Spanish America.[18]
Also, Mexican historian Federico Navarrete comments: that "if they received the surname of the white father and incorporated them into their family, those children counted as American whites having the same rights, regardless of the race".[19] Also, a fact is in every marriage, including the most mixed, they are characterized, portrayed and named the caste product that was according to their ancestry, and if this can not, according to their appearance and color.[20]
Several documents mention that indigenous people called Criollos with the same name as one of their gods. For example, Juan Pablo Viscardo relates (1797) that the Indigenous (from Peru) call to the Criollos 'Viracocha';[21] also, he says that Criollos are born in the middle of the Indigenous, are respected, and also loved by many, that they speak the language of the natives (in addition to Spanish) and used to Indigenous customs.[21]
After suppressing the Túpac Amaru II Uprising of 1780 in the viceroyalty of Peru, evidence began against the criollos ill will from the Spanish Crown, especially for the Oruro Rebellion prosecuted in Buenos Aires, and also for the lawsuit filed against Dr. Juan José Segovia, born in Tacna, and Colonel Ignacio Flores, born in Quito, who had served as President of the Real Audiencia of Charcas and had been Governor Mayor of La Plata (Chuquisaca or Charcas, current Sucre).[22]
