page_title: Pardo Brazilians
section_title: Definitions
hierarchical_section_title: Pardo Brazilians / Definitions
caption_attribution_description: English: Main ethnic groups in Brazil. Information taken from the following books: *Coelho, Marcos Amorim. Geografia do Brasil. 4. Ed. São Paulo: Moderna, 1996.*Adas, Melhem. Panorama geográfico do Brasil. 1. Ed. São Paulo: Moderna, 1983.*Azevedo, Aroldo. O Brasil e suas regiões. São Paulo: Companhia Editora Nacional, 1971.
context_page_description: In Brazil, Pardo, also known popularly as Moreno, is an ethnic and skin color category used by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics in the Brazilian censuses. The term "pardo" is a complex one, more commonly used to refer to Brazilians of mixed ethnic ancestries. Pardo Brazilians represent a diverse range of skin colors and ethnic backgrounds. They are typically a mixture of Europeans, Sub-Saharan Africans and/or Native Brazilian.
  The other categories are branco, preto, amarelo, and indígena. The term was and is still popular in Brazil.
  Pardo was also a casta classification used in Colonial Spanish America from the 16th to 19th centuries. The term pardo was used primarily in small areas of Spanish America whose economy was based on slavery during the Spanish colonization period.
context_section_description: According to IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics), pardo is a broad classification that encompasses Multiracial Brazilians such as mulatos and cafuzos, as well as assimilated Amerindians known as caboclos, mixed with Europeans or not. The term "pardo" was first used in a Brazilian census in 1872. The following census, in 1890, replaced the word pardo by mestiço (that of mixed origins). The censuses of 1900 and 1920 did not ask about race, arguing that "the answers largely hid the truth".
  In Brazil the word "pardo" has had a general meaning since the beginning of the colonization. In the famous letter by Pero Vaz de Caminha, for example, in which Brazil was first described by the Portuguese, the Native Americans were called "pardo": "Pardo, naked, without clothing".
  A reading of colonial wills and testaments also shows it. Diogo de Vasconcelos, a widely known historian from Minas Gerais, mentions, for example, the story of Andresa de Castilhos. According to the information from the 18th century, Andresa de Castilhos was thus described: "I declare that Andresa de Castilhos, pardo woman ... has been freed ... is a descendant of the natives of the land ... I declare that Andresa de Castilhos is the daughter of a white man and a native woman".
  The historian Maria Leônia Chaves de Resende also explains that the word pardo was employed to name people with native ancestry or even Native Americans themselves: a Manoel, natural son of Ana carijó, was baptized as a 'pardo'; in Campanha several Native Americans were classified as 'pardo'; the natives João Ferreira, Joana Rodriges and Andreza Pedrosa, for example, were named 'freed pardo'; a Damaso called himself 'freed pardo' of the 'native of the land'; etc.
  According to Maria Leônia Chaves de Resende, the growth of the pardo population in Brazil includes the descendants of natives and not only those of African descent: "the growth of the 'pardo' segment had not only to do with the descendants of Africans, but also with the descendants of the natives, in particular the carijós and bastards, included in the condition of 'pardo'".
  The American historian Muriel Nazzari specifically pointed out the "pardo" category absorbed those of Native American descent in São Paulo: "This paper seeks to demonstrate that, though many Indians and mestizos did migrate, those who remained in São Paulo came to be classified as pardos"
  The question about race reappeared in the 1940 census. In this census, "pardo" was not given as an option, but if the answer was different from the options "white", "black" and "yellow", a horizontal line would be drawn into the "color" box. When the census data was tabulated, all responses with horizontal lines were collected into the single category of "pardo". The term "pardo" was not used as an option as an assurance to the public that census data would not be used for discriminatory purposes due to rising European racist sentiment at the time. In the 1950 census, "pardo" was actually added as a choice of answer. This trend remains, with the exception of the 1970 census, which also did not ask about race.
  The 20th century saw a large growth of the pardo population. In 1940, 21.2% of Brazilians were classified as pardos. In 2000, they had increased to 38.5% of the population. This is only partially due to the continuous process of miscegenation in the Brazilian population. Races are molded in accordance with perceptions and ideologies prevalent at each historical moment. In the 20th century, a significant part of the Brazilians who used to self-report as Black in earlier censuses chose to move to the Pardo category. Also a significant part of the population that used to self-report as white also moved to the Pardo category with the growing racial and social awareness, and Magnoli describes this phenomenon as the pardização ("pardoization") of Brazil.
caption: Main ethnic groups in Brazil.
exif: {}