Ethiicity

[longknife]

I'm hoping someone can help me.

My latest trilogy deals with Spaniards, western Mexican and Californian indians and Hispanics in general. How on earth do I describe their differences from other racial groupings?

I'm certainly NOT trying to be racist.

Anglo/Saxons like me are generally big-boned, have pale skin [many with freckles], blond hair and blue/green eyes. [Again, there are many, many exceptions to this]

Asians have the curilean[sp?] fold and yellowish [bad example] skin, also small of stature.

Africans, of course have dark brown to almost black skin with promintent facial features.

So, what exactly is it that makes Hispanics different?

The Spanish were European and many had blond hair and other Anglo features. However, the generally followed the Mediterranean mold of darker skin, black or brown hair and hazel eyes.

The Aztecs were noted for having large, hooked noses and dark skin browned from the strong sun. The Indians of Sonora/Sinaloa and Baja California had similar coloring but more rounded features. They were NOT redskins as referred to those of the northeastern area of North America.

I spent an hour plus in a Spanish language mass today, probably the only guerro, and tried my best to see what it is that distinguishes Hispanics/Mexicans from others. Their ethnicity was clear but, for the life of me, I can't pin down exactly what that is.

Help!

[bodwen]

Spanish soldiers of your period tended to be dark and hairy with barrel chests and short limbs.  The manikins I've seen had black hair and pointed beards.  Since spain was such a melting pot up until the reign of Queen Isabel, I assume there was a lot of mingling between moors, Christians, Africans, and Shepardic Jews which lent towards the swarthy coloration in the soldiering classes.

Castillians were the blondes.  Queen Isabel was a strawberry blonde, as were her daughters including Catherine of Aragon, first wife of Henry VIII.  She's always depicted as having black hair in movies.  I think it's because people mistake the black veil she wore in her most famous painting for her natural haircolor.

The Spaniards of the 1500 were notorious for their brutality.  They were the home of the Inquisition and the Borgias, after all.  Rulers would hire spanish mercanaries if they wanted to strike terror into the hearts of their enemies.

[longknife]

Thanks. My novels are set in the late 1700s so the mixture of ethnic groups had widened. The true-blood Spaniards still dominated but many of the subgroups had extensive mixture. Mestizos, half-bloods, included Spanish with Indian AND African blood strains.

I nice tidbit for all. "The famed description of Indians being "red skins" has an interesting basis. The Indians WERE NOT with a reddish tint to their natural skin. . The red skin of legend is a consequence of a dye made from a root, probably madder, known as puccoon, that stained the skin. The red dye was mixed with bear grease and clay cosmetics which functioned as sun blocks and insect blocks and protection from the cold in wintertime." Thanks to a poster on another writing forum.

One of the things my research uncovered that I NEVER heard of or read about growing up in Los Angeles was that a percentage of the Pobladores who settled the area were of African/Indian blood.

[vcanfield]

Well, I'm half Mexican, half Spanish--all Latino.  Most Mexicans are going to be dark-haired and dark-eyed. We tend towards a shorter stature. The Mexican skin color tends to be dark brown to light olive. Mexican hair can go from stick straight to curly. I have also noticed almond shaped eyes and high cheek bones among Mexican populations and Native Americans. I think because most peoples (is that right? peoples?) in South America, Central America and Native Americans share some of the ancestors that came through the Bering Strait, you'll see alot of the staight dark hair, dark eyes and hairless chests and almond-shaped eyes. The Spaniard side of my family has lighter hair, taller stature and lighter and larger eyes. There are also less swarthy skin types on my Spanish side of the family. They tend to be more fair. We even have a few dark blondes. Although, to be fair you will find natural blondes and light brunettes in places like Mexico city where there is a greater mixture of Europrean/Spanish ancestory. I'm not sure about the hooked noses being all that common with Aztecs, but they most certainly had straight, dark hair, dark eyes and dark skin. Same goes with the Mayans. It's obvious I'm a mixture, with dark brown, curly hair, light-olive skin, short stature, high cheek bones and dark brown eyes. I hope that helps.

[longknife]

I think I was getting too hung up on something unnecessary. As others have pointed out, there are lots of ways of showing the differences during the period I'm writing about.

[vcanfield]

It's possible you are getting way more technical than people will appreciate. I tend to over research things too.