The semantics of ‘mestizo’Posted in Anthropology, Articles, Media Archive on 2012-07-28 23:33Z by Steven |
GMA News Online
2012-07-12
Amanda Lago
“What’s your mix?” clothing brand Bayo asked Filipina women in its heavily-lampooned ad campaign from last month.
The ad drew criticism for excluding 100-percent Filipinos, and glorifying the “50-precent Filipina” instead, thereby feeding the beauty industry’s obsession with so-called mestizas.
But as it turns out, all Filipinos are mestizos of a sort—and it comes down to matter of semantics.
Apparently, the word “mestizo” has long suffered from widespread misuse, at least according to cultural anthropologist Dr. Fernando Zialcita.
To most Filipinos, “mestizo” refers to fellow Pinoys who are fairer-skinned than others, usually those who are descended from American or European parents or grandparents.
But in a lecture at the Instituto Cervantes Tuesday, Zialcita said that the original meaning of the word “mestizo” has nothing to do with skin color…
Read the entire article here.
