ladino people

{{See also|Demographics of Guatemala}}

The Ladino population in Guatemala is officially recognized as a distinct ethnic group, and the Ministry of Education of Guatemala uses the following definition:{{cite web |url=http://www.minedoc.gob.gt/administracion/dependencias/centrales/ccre/ccre_interculturalidad.htm |title=Reflexiones sobre el mestizaje y la identidad nacional en Centroamérica: de la colonia a las Républicas liberales |access-date=28 July 2008 |author=Ministerio de Educación (MINEDUC) |year=2008 |language=es }}{{Dead link|date=June 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

The ladino population has been characterized as a heterogeneous population which expresses itself in the Spanish language as a maternal language, which possesses specific cultural traits of Hispanic origin mixed with indigenous cultural elements, and dresses in a style commonly considered as western.

In popular use, the term ladino commonly refers to non-indigenous Guatemalans, as well as mestizos and westernized Amerindians. The word is actually derived from the old Spanish ladino (inherited from the same Latin root {{Lang|la|Latinus}} that the Spanish word {{Lang|es|Latino}} was later borrowed from), originally referring to those who spoke Romance languages in medieval times, and later also developing the separate meaning of "crafty" or "astute". In the Central American colonial context, it was first used to refer to those Amerindians who came to speak only Spanish, and later included their mestizo descendants.Diccionario Critico Etimologico castellano G-MA, by Joan Corominas, {{cite book |url=https://www.scribd.com/document/158436236/Diccionario-Critico-Etimologico-castellano-G-MA-Corominas-Joan-pdf |title=Diccionario Critico Etimologico castellano G-MA |access-date=2016-10-09 |archive-date=2016-10-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161010043014/https://www.scribd.com/document/158436236/Diccionario-Critico-Etimologico-castellano-G-MA-Corominas-Joan-pdf |url-status=dead }}

Ladino is sometimes used to refer to the mestizo middle class, or to the population of indigenous peoples who have attained some level of upward social mobility above the largely impoverished indigenous masses. This relates especially to achieving some material wealth and adopting a American lifestyle. In many areas of Guatemala, it is used in a wider sense, meaning "any Guatemalan whose primary language is Spanish".

Indigenist rhetoric sometimes uses ladino in the second sense, as a derogatory term for indigenous peoples who are seen as having betrayed their homes by becoming part of the middle class. Some may deny indigenous heritage to assimilate. "The 20th century K'iche Maya political activist, Rigoberta Menchú, born in 1959, used the term this way in her noted memoir, which many considered controversial. She illustrates the use of ladino both as a derogatory term, when discussing an indigenous person becoming mestizo/ladino, and in terms of the general mestizo community identifying as ladino as a kind of happiness.

{{Portal|Latin America}}

{{Columns-list|colwidth=20em|* Assimilado

• Hispanicization
• Ilustrado
• Emancipados
• Évolué
• Ladino (Judaeo-Spanish language)

}}

{{Reflist}}

• Adams, Richard N. Guatemalan Ladinization and History. In: The Americas, Vol. 50, No. 4 (Apr., 1994), pp. 527–543. Academy of American Franciscan History.
• Falla, Ricardo (translated by Phillip Berryman). Quiché rebelde: religious conversion, politics, and ethnic identity in Guatemala. University of Texas Press, 2001. {{ISBN|0-292-72532-9}} [https://books.google.com/books?q=0292725329 in Google books]
• Martínez Peláez, Severo. La patria del criollo: Ensayo de interpretación de la realidad colonial guatemalteca. Guatemala: Editorial Universitaria, USAC, 1970.

{{Mestizos}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Ethnic groups in Central America

Category:Ethnic groups in South America

Category:Multiracial affairs in the Americas

Category:Latin American caste system