Peninsulares


In the context of the Spanish Empire, a peninsular was a Spaniard born in Spain residing in the New World, Spanish East Indies, or Spanish Guinea. In the context of the Portuguese Empire, reinóis were Portuguese people born in Portugal residing primarily in Portuguese America; children born in Brazil to two reinóis parents were known as mazombos.
Spaniards born in the Spanish Philippines were called insular/es or, originally, filipino/s, before "Filipino" now came to be known as all of the modern citizens of the now sovereign independent Philippines. Spaniards born in the colonies of the New World that today comprises the Hispanic America are called criollos.
Higher offices in Spanish America and the Spanish Philippines were held by peninsulares. Apart from the distinction of peninsulares from criollo, the castas system distinguished also mestizos of mixed Spanish and Amerindian ancestry in the Americas, and 'mestizos de español', or 'tornatrás' in the Philippines / Spanish East Indies, mulatos, indios, zambos and finally negros. In some places and times, such as during the wars of independence, peninsulares or members of conservative parties were called depreciatively godos or, in Mexico, gachupines. Godos is still used pejoratively in the Canary Islands for the peninsular Spanish, and in Chile for Spaniards.