Título: Indigenous peoples of Mexico
Seção: Colonial-era racial categories and post-independence
Background: Indigenous peoples of Mexico (Spanish: pueblos indigenas de Mexico), Native Mexicans (Spanish: nativos mexicanos), or Mexican Native Americans (Spanish: nativo america mexicanos), are those who are part of communities that trace their roots back to populations and communities that existed in what is now Mexico prior to the arrival of Europeans. According to the National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples (Comision Nacional para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indigenas, or CDI in Spanish) and the INEGI (official census institute), in 2015, 25,694,928 people in Mexico self-identify as being indigenous of many different ethnic groups, which constitute 21.5% of Mexico's population.

Conteúdo: The pre-Columbian civilizations of what now is known as Mexico are usually divided in two regions: Mesoamerica, in reference to the cultural area where several complex civilizations developed before the arrival of the Spanish in the sixteenth century, and Aridoamerica (or simply "The North") in reference to the arid region north of the Tropic of Cancer where few civilizations developed and was mostly inhabited by nomadic or semi-nomadic groups. Despite the conditions however, it is argued that the Mogollon culture and Peoples successfully established population centers at Casas Grandes and Cuarenta Casas in a vast territory that encompassed northern Chihuahua state and parts of Arizona and New Mexico in the United States.  Mesoamerica was densely populated by diverse indigenous ethnic groups which, although sharing common cultural characteristics, spoke different languages and developed unique civilizations.  One of the most influential civilizations that developed in Mesoamerica was the Olmec civilization, sometimes referred to as the "Mother Culture of Mesoamerica". The later civilization in Teotihuacan reached its peak around 600 AD, when the city became the sixth largest city in the world, whose cultural and theological systems influenced the Toltec and Aztec civilizations in later centuries. Evidence has been found on the existence of multiracial communities or neighborhoods in Teotihuacan (and other large urban areas like Tenochtitlan).  The Maya civilization, though al

user: What racial categories were there

assistant: Mesoamerica, in reference to the cultural area where several complex civilizations developed before the arrival of the Spanish in the sixteenth century, and Aridoamerica (or simply "The North")

user: What racial influences are there?

assistant: Mesoamerica was densely populated by diverse indigenous ethnic groups which, although sharing common cultural characteristics, spoke different languages and developed unique civilizations.

user: Who did they gain independence from?

assistant: When Mexico gained independence in 1821, the casta system was eliminated as a legal structure,

user: What was the casta system

assistant: This system gave more political and social power to Spaniards so that Indigenous people and blacks could be kept in lower positions.

user: anything else?

assistant: Under the Mexican government, some indigenous people had land rights under ejido and agrarian communities.