Indigenous, Afro-descendant, Roma, and other ethnic populations of the Americas

In the Region of the Americas there are approximately 826 indigenous peoples, each with a particular worldview and cosmogony that configure unique universes and, therefore, ways of being and being in the world and in a particular territory. The indigenous peoples of the region speak more than 550 different languages, almost a quarter of which are cross-border languages used in two or more countries, making Latin America the region with the largest number of linguistic families in the world, not counting the languages of uncontacted peoples in voluntary isolation, which are about 200 of the existing tribes living in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela (1).

In the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, according to the 2010 census, there are approximately 45 million indigenous people, representing about 8-10% of the total population. These peoples live in geographically diverse areas such as Patagonia, the Extended Chaco, Amazonia, Orinoquia, the Andes, the Pacific Coastal Plain and the Continental Caribbean, as well as in lower Central America, Mesoamerica and North America, including the Arctic region. Eighty-seven percent of the indigenous peoples of the Americas live in Mexico, Bolivia, Guatemala, Peru and Colombia. Brazil is the country with the greatest diversity of indigenous peoples, with 305 peoples speaking 188 languages.

A large part of this population still resides in their traditional territories, many of which are legally recognized by States; however, 49% of them have migrated to urban areas due to, among other things, dispossession of their lands, environmental degradation, forced displacement as a result of armed conflict and violence, and natural disasters (2).

For its part, the Afro-descendant population in the Americas is estimated to be around 130 million people in 2015, about 24% of the total population. “Brazil is the country with the largest number of Afro-descendants, representing more than half of its population; it is followed in relative importance by Cuba, with 36% of Afro-descendants, a total of slightly more than 4 million people; and with a smaller proportion Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Panama, countries where the Afro-descendant population represents between 7% and 10%…”  “…in Mexico and Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) they are about one million people, and in Peru more than half a million…”  

This population, although geographically distributed throughout the countries of the region, is predominantly urban, but also located in areas associated with displacement and migration from neighboring countries. In cases such as Colombia and Nicaragua, the population is still concentrated in the areas of historical settlement. These are the places where the process of enslavement took place during the colonial period and are strongly associated with Afro-culture (3). Moreover, in countries such as Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador, some of these historical settlements have been recognized as Afro-descendant territories (4).

It is estimated that there are approximately 3 million Roma (Gypsies) in the Americas, living in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, the United States, Mexico and Uruguay (5). They originate from India, but arrived from Europe during the colonization period and through subsequent migratory processes. 

Characterized as a nomadic people, the majority of the Roma population is currently settled, but without their own territory, some still living in tent camps or in rented houses with windows and walls covered with fabric that resemble the interior of a tent (6).

References

1. CELADE/CEPAL. Indigenous peoples in Latin America. Avances en el último decenio y retos pendientes para la garantía de sus derechos [internet] Santiago de Chile: Printed in United Nations; 2014 [Cited August 2, 2023], 410 pp. Available at: https://repositorio.cepal.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/6cddee6b-30f3-43d5-ba6b-c4daf200b194/content
2. International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank. Indigenous Latin America in the 21st Century [Internet]. Washington, D.C.: World Bank. 2015 [Cited August 2, 2023]. 120 pp. Available at: https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/541651467999959129/pdf/Latinoamérica-indígena-en-el-siglo-XXI-primera-década.pdf
3. International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank. Afrodescendants in Latin America. Towards a Framework for Inclusion. Washington, D.C.: World Bank. 2018. [Cited August 2, 2023]. 136 pp. Disponible en: https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/es/316161533724728187/pdf/129298-7-8-2018-17-30-51-AfrodescendientesenLatinoamerica.pdf
4. ECLAC. Situación de las personas afrodescendientes en América Latina y desafíos de políticas para la garantía de sus derechos. [internet] Santiago, Chile: Printed in United Nations; 2017. [Cited August 2, 2023]. Available at: https://repositorio.cepal.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/e16fd1a5-4716-4d09-b717-cf088595b0c7/content
5. Hernández, Ricardo. Gypsies: once upon a time America [Internet]. Panorama cultural, The cultural newspaper of the Colombian Caribbean coast. 2021 [Cited August 2, 2023] Available in: https://panoramacultural.com.co/pueblos/7738/gitanos-erase-una-vez-america
6. Salamanca G, González A. Gypsies of Chile, an ethnolinguistic approach. Atenea (Concepción) [Internet]. 1999. [Cited August 2, 2023]. 480: 141-178 Available from: https://www.academia.edu/60926553/Gitanos_de_Chile_un_acercamiento_etnolingüistico.