"From Indians to Blacks, and back to Indians": the Miskitu's shifting paper identity (Honduras and Nicaragua; article by Laura Hobson Herlihy)
Record: the document says itPattern: documents line upLens: our readingOpen: not yet proven
Year: 1787 · Places: Caribbean, Central America, Europe, Africa
SUMMARY"From Indians to Blacks, and back to Indians": the Miskitu's shifting paper identity (Honduras and Nicaragua; article by Laura Hobson Herlihy) [Connections: Latin America & Caribbean, Nov 5, 2026]
RECORDHerlihy ("'No somos indios... todos estamos mezclados': La identidad miskita en Honduras," Wani) reports that Spanish speakers on the Honduran coast use "zambo" "de una manera peyorativa," while English speakers call them "indios miskitos." She summarizes anthropologist Mary Helms's view that over 400 years the Miskitu changed identity "de indios a negros, y nuevamente a indios," and Linda Newson's view that the Zambo-Miskitu "no pueden ser clasificados en su totalidad como indios, sino como mestizos." By the mid-1800s, legal documents in both states referred to "indios miskitos" (citing Offen 2002). Herlihy herself reports many Honduran Miskitu say "No somos indios... todos estamos mezclados." Wikipedia reports that when Britain withdrew in 1787 it resettled "537 Zambo Africans often misnamed Miskitos" and 1,677 Native American slaves to British Honduras (Belize)
PATTERNThe same nation is filed as Indian, Black, mestizo, or mixed depending on who writes and when
LENS (WW9)Four labels for one people in 400 years. That's the paper, not the people
OPENThe issue and date of the Wani article were not shown; confirm. Census treatment of Miskitu in Honduras and Nicaragua needs deep research