Ladinos

ETHNONYMS: none

"Ladino" is a term that was applied to the Old Castilian or Romance language to differentiate it from Latin, from which it was derived and of which it was considered to be a degenerate form. During the time that Muslims were in Spain, the term was applied to Muslims who spoke Castilian. In Mexico during the sixteenth century, Indians who had been educated by the friars and who knew the necessary Latin for the Catholic liturgy were sometimes called "Latinos" and, more generally, "Ladinos" or "Ladinizados." Later the term began to be applied to those Indians who learned Spanish. In a distorted sense, because of the cultural values attributed to the term "Ladino," the word came to be used to describe someone who was deceptive or malicious.

Bibliography

Adams, Richard N. (1956). Encuesta sobre la cultura de los ladinos en Guatemala. Guatemala City: Ministerio de Educación Pública, Seminario de Integración Social Guatemalteca.

Adams, Richard N. (1964). "La mestización cultural en centroamérica." Revista de Indias (Madrid) 95-96:153-176.

Adams, Richard N. (1970). Crucifixion by Power: Essays on Guatemalan National Social Structure, 1944-1966. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Casaus Arzú, Marta (1992). Guatemala: Linaje y racismo. San José, Costa Rica: Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales.

Glittenberg, Joann Elizabeth Kropp (1976). "A Comparative Study of Fertility in Highland Guatemala: A Ladino and an Indian Town." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Colorado at Boulder.

Pitt-Rivers, Julian (1970). "Palabras y hechos: Los ladinos." In Ensayos de antropología en la zona central de Chiapas , edited by Norman McQuown and Julian Pitt-Rivers, 21-42. Mexico City: Instituto Nacional Indigenista.

Spielberg, Joseph (1965). "San Miguel Milpas Altas: An Ethnographic Analysis of Interpersonal Relations in a Peasant-Ladino Community of Guatemala." Ph.D. dissertation, Michigan State University.

MARÍA DE LA PALOMA ESCALANTE GONZALBO (Translated by Ruth Gubler)