Los Mestizos....

By any standards, Ecuador is considered ethnically diverse. The breakdown of the population is as follows: mestizo(mixed blood, 65%), Amerindians (25%), Euro-Americans (6%), Afro-Americans (3%), and Oriental (1%). Further, Ecuador's Amerindians are divided into 12 distinct indigenous nationalities.

Los mestizos

any person of mixed blood. In Central and South America it denotes a person of combined Indian and European extraction. In Ecuador—it has acquired social and cultural connotations; a pure-blooded Indian who has adopted European dress and customs is called a mestizo (or cholo).

As Catholicism and Western lifestyles have become more common in Ecuador, indigenous views and lifestyles have not only become less common, but are seen asinferior.

..groups of Ecuador include a number of Indian-language-speaking populations (often referred to as indigenous peoples or Amerindians) and highland and lowland Spanish-speaking mestizos (people of mixed Indian and European descent). Ethnicity in Ecuador is often a matter of self-identification. Most Ecuadorans consider themselves mestizo and tend to identify with their...