Brazilian racial classification of mestizos
Gilberto Freyre's book (1956):
brancarao --a very light-skinned mulatto, so light as to appear almost white;
caboclo/a -- literally means copper-colored; applied to Indian or mestizo;
mameluco/a -- offspring of white and Indian, sometimes including black;
cabore -- offspring of black and Indian;
cafuso -- offspring of Indian and black parents;
cariboca -- a mestizo, part black and part Indian;
cabrocha -- a feminine dark-skinned mestizo type; and
cabra -- a brave mestizo of African, white and Indian ancestry.
Other terms indicated the prejudice against blacks, one of the most objectionable referring to bodily functions. Such is the case with budum and catinga (referring to the body odor reputed to characterize the African). Other terms indicating great social discrepancies are:
cria -- a young black, born and reared in the Big House;
ladino/a -- a slave who spoke Portuguese, had some Christian teaching, and worked around the house or field;
mae preta -- black mammy;
malungo --a young black playmate of the whites lads of the Big House;
mucama -- a favorite black maid employed as house servant and personal attendant;
muleca -- a young black maid in the Big House;
mulecote -- a sturdily built muleque, or black lad;
muleque -- a young black; now a wag or a blackguard; and
mulequinho -- pickaninny; small black lad.
neguinho do Itapema -- a mestizo , part black , part Indian , part German Jewish
The fact that things have not changed all that much in Brazil is seen in the Dictionary of Informal Brazilian Portuguese (Chamberlain and Harmon 1983:628). Here is listed under the heading "Negro" terms such as monkey (o macaco) and rotting black flesh (urubu), along with others of a non-complimentary sort.
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Originally Posted by Sigrun Christianson
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