mestiza/mestizo

generally understood to be a person of Indian and Spanish ancestry, these terms (female/male) have no equivalents in English. Although the terms are nonpejorative in most Spanish-language countries, not everyone in the U.S. who meets the definition self-identifies that way; "La Raza" is preferred by many (Resource Center of the Americas). Jaimie Markham (in Colors), says, "Of all traditional words for us, mestizo comes closest to satisfying me, but only because the great Brazilian writer Jorge Amado so clearly articulated the culture of mestizaje in his novel Tent of Miracles. In the Brazilian context these words speak with conscious pride of diverse racial origins, but this pride is not conveyed by the literal translations: mixed blood and miscegenation." See also Hispanic, La Raza, Mexican American.