Venezuela ETHNIC GROUPS
Venezuelans
Courtesy Inter-American Development Bank
Venezuelan society by the twentieth century was an
amalgam of
three races; numerically, the country was primarily
mestizo
(mixed race). Although ethnic background served as an
important
criterion of status in colonial times, it became less so
as
genetic mixing involving various combinations of white,
black,
and Indian made distinguishing among racial types
increasingly
difficult. Eventually, ethnic categories came to be
regarded as
points along a continuum rather than as distinct
categories, and
physical appearance and skin color--instead of ethnic
group per
se--became major criteria for determining status. No
national
census has classified Venezuelans according to ethnicity
since
1926, so that characterizations of the national
composition are
only rough estimates. Only 1 to 2 percent were pure
Indians, and
somewhere between 56 and 82 percent of the population were
mestizos, which in Venezuela signified a mixture of any of
the
other categories. A credible break-down through 1990 would
be 68
percent mestizo, 21 percent unmixed Caucasian, 10 percent
black,
and 1 percent Indian.
Even during the colonial period, native Venezuelan
Indians
were neither as numerous nor as advanced as their
counterparts in
Mexico and Peru. Different tribes with varying cultures
and
languages occupied portions of the territory. The more
advanced
groups were ruled by a single chief and supported a
priesthood to
serve the local temples, whereas the more primitive lived
as
wandering hunters and gatherers or as seminomadic
slash-and-burn
farmers. The Spanish conquest, either directly or
indirectly,
resulted in the decimation of many indigenous groups. Many
perished from diseases against which they had no immunity;
others
died of famine or the harsh conditions of enslavement. The
nomadic tropical forest Indians were less affected by the
Spaniards than those Indians who occupied a defined
territory.
Most of the nomadic groups simply moved to less accessible
areas.
Even they, however, lost many of their number to diseases
brought
by the white men, diseases that were airborne or
waterborne and
therefore did not require direct contact to spread
infection. By
the end of the first century of Spanish rule, some twenty
tribes
out of forty or fifty had become extinct.
Also during the colonial period, racial mixture
proceeded
apace. The earliest conquerors brought no Spanish women
with
them, and many formed common-law relationships with Indian
women.
It was not uncommon for the offspring of these unions to
be
recognized and legitimated by the fathers.
African slavery was instituted in Venezuela to meet the
growing labor demands of an emerging agricultural economy.
Many
of the slaves came to Venezuela not directly from Africa,
but
from other colonies, especially the Antilles (West
Indies).
Again, racial mixture was common. The offspring of master
and
slave often was freed and might even have received some
education
and been named a beneficiary in the father's will.
As a result of these racial mixtures, Venezuelan
society from
its very beginnings displayed a more homogeneous ethnic
makeup
than most other Latin American colonies. The large group
of
freedmen worked mostly as manual laborers in the emerging
cities
or lived as peasants on small plots of land. Blacks and
mestizos
occupied the rungs below Spaniards on the social ladder,
but they
still enjoyed a number of rights and guarantees provided
by
Spanish law and customs.
This rather fluid ethnic situation, however, did not
equate
to a free and open society. Until the latter half of the
twentieth century, Venezuelan social structure was quite
rigidly
organized along class and racial lines. A small number of
more-or-less pure-blooded, unmixed Caucasians occupied the
top
rung of the social ladder by virtue of their status as
landlords
and as self-styled inheritors of Hispanic mores and
customs. This
heritage stressed the importance of the patriarchal
extended
family, the primacy accorded individual uniqueness and
dignity,
disdain for manual labor, and a sharp distinction between
the
roles of men and women. In the traditional society, the
lower
class was rural, with the majority of its members poor
peasants,
usually of pure or mixed Indian or black descent. A small
middle
class, made up of less successful whites and some
mestizos, lived
mainly in the cities and towns.
By the early eighteenth century, the outlines and bases
of
the social system had been drawn. Most Indians and a
growing
number of blacks were losing their ethnic and cultural
identities
through the processes of racial mixture and societal
pressure to
conform to Hispanic norms. New generations began to see
themselves as Venezuelans, distinct from Colombians, with
whom
they were associated through colonial administrative
structures,
or from the dwindling numbers of isolated forest Indians.
The
criollos, Venezuelan but of direct Spanish descent, formed
the
leadership cadre of a new national system. The growth of
nationalism, however, did not subsume or overcome regional
differences. In fact, the devotion to region was often far
stronger than devotion to country, a factor that in many
ways
explains the protracted nature of the war of independence.
In
addition, both Indians and blacks during this period had
reason
to feel that they were better protected by the Spanish
crown than
might be the case under a regime ruled by haughty criollos
(see The Epic of Independence
, ch. 1).
After independence the society changed little; a small,
privileged, criollo elite upper class still held sway over
a
small middle class and a large lower class. The internal
wars
among competing caudillos during the second half of the
nineteenth century served as a leveler to some extent. By
the
turn of the century, even though Venezuela was still a
very
traditional society, the upper levels had been breached to
the
point where a semiliterate peasant caudillo such as Gómez
could
rise to the very top of the political ladder and rule for
nearly
three decades
(see A Century of Caudillismo
, ch. 1).
Given the relative fluidity of Venezuelan society in
ethnic
terms, few groups have stayed isolated and "pure". Among
these
were a few settlements of coastal blacks that retained
more of
their African and West Indian identity than did the vast
majority
of dark mestizos in many other areas of Venezuelan
society,
particularly in such cosmopolitan cities as Caracas. Other
isolated groups included the tribal Indians, particularly
in the
Amazon area. A more visible but still distinct group was
that of
the Guajiro Indians, who could be found mainly in part of
the
area around Maracaibo, on the Península de la Guajira, and
on the
Colombian border.
The Guajiro, pastoral nomads who range freely across
the
Venezuelan-Colombian border region, represented probably
the best
known and largest tribe of Indians remaining in the
country.
Owing to their pastoral life, most of the Guajiro lived in
temporary villages, often in shelters that were little
more than
lean-tos. Guajiro society is organized into matrilineal
clans,
headed by chieftains who inherit their office through the
maternal line. The social organization is based on a
division of
society into classes of nobles and commoners.
Although the Guajiro's style of dress and customs
separated
them sharply from the larger Venezuelan society, they had
adopted
many criollo traits and adapted fairly well to a money
economy.
Most professed at least nominal Roman Catholicism and
spoke
Spanish. Intermarriage with non-Guajiros also was not
uncommon.
In this respect, the Guajiros reflected the changes in
twentiethcentury Venezuelan society as a whole as they adapted to a
process of modernization driven by the nation's oil
wealth.
Data as of December 1990
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