[ noun ] a person of mixed racial ancestry (especially mixed European and Native American ancestry) <noun.person>
Mestizo \Mes*ti"zo\, n.; pl. {Mestizos}. [Sp. mestizo; akin to OF. mestis, F. m['e]tis; all fr. (assumed) LL. mixtitius, fr. L. mixtus mixed, p. p. of miscere to mix. See {Mix}, and cf. {Mestee}, {M['E]tif}, {M['E]tis}, {Mustee}.] The offspring of an Indian or a negro and a European or person of European stock. [Spanish America]
{Mestizo wool}, wool imported from South America, and produced by mixed breeds of sheep.
The smaller Tupac Amaru rebels, who take their name from an 18th century mestizo revolutionary who fought to free Peru from colonial Spanish rule, operate separately and in competition with the Shining Path.
POPULATION _ Its more than 5 million people are mainly Roman Catholic and mestizo _ people of both Indian and Spanish heritage. More than 500,000 of its residents have fled its 9-year-old civil war, most of them to the United States.