Some Spanish were French-pasty; others were Berber-brown. This is because there were lots of waves of people from Europe and North Africa and the Middle East who settled in Spain.

But the Spanish were also known for being pretty rapacious in the New World; this would mostly have resulted in Spanish blood in people who were indigenous by heritage, but I’m sure over time some of those “Spanish-looking” indigenes would have passed themselves off as Spanish for a better station in life, rejecting their heritage in the process. The Spanish didn’t do the whole “reservation” thing after all, they just moved in and set up camp where they wanted and mixed with the locals — kind of like the French in Canada.

I think the french are more pasty? Any child of a frenchman had lots of rights. That’s how Haiti got to rebel, no?

Edit: I’m sorry, there seems to be a misunderstanding from my part. Pasty means pale! Now I get it! I think it doesn’t make too much sense because America is a european concept for Americus Vespucius, so it’s more Mexico than latin america. The spanish are kind white, but they are also very african because they were colonized by the Arabs from the Magreb and beyond.

Italians are kind of dark skinned also, maybe because of North Africa? I don’t know. Anyway, the dark skin don’t necessarily means the person is hispanic or a original person.

The problem here is the acculturation. I bet some people mark themselves as white for convenience, and there are all the darkskinned “hispanic” people. I don’t know, seems kind of bogus to me.