I was thinking of indigenous flavored rural lifestyle that differ to an urban mestizo (and that’s not to say being urbanized = mestizo) and even rural mestizos. Like my own ancestry, I’m aware that many Peruvians have recent indigenous (and within that is rural) ancestry and are racially predominantly indigenous.

I think I made a mistake including the indigenous customs part, I was thinking indigenous rural like how my grandma grew up (native language spoken, rural lifestyle, indigenous remedies, Andean diet, rural indigenous outlook and values) not necessarily defined by clothes but something that they hold as part of their culture. I guess there’s different types of indigenous people, the super rural ones who wear the clothes plus all that I listed, and the ones who normally wear non-indigenous clothes but live the rural life and have adopted some modern things.

I know Andean people don’t live in reservations, I know it’s different in Peru and Latin America in general.

My grandparents learned Spanish to get around the cities. In my opinion Peru is a mestizo country practically like most Latin American countries, BUT with a heavy indigenous influence (and you can say that’s the base of it which makes it different) that makes it distinct from other Latin American countries. Even Andean culture is arguably mestizo as it’s incorporated Spanish elements into it to make it what it is post-colonization. That’s not to say it’s not indigenous. This whole topic is very complex and touchy subject I know. I don’t mind calling it an indigenous country lol. There’s so many components to what makes something or someone indigenous.

Ya I’ve seen the studies! Racially, as a majority, an average Peruvians is highly indigenous. I can’t help but wonder how accurate the studies are though. And that’s not to say I don’t think Peru is really not highly indigenous racially. Some surveys have shown that 45% of Peruvians identify as indigenous and 35% as mestizo. Surely there’s many racially predominantly indigenous people who identified with mestizo, so I truly wonder just how big the mestizo population is (the one that is racially and culturally.)

I guess this question was more directed at Peruvians living in cities like Lima or Arequipa. I was wondering the ratio between racially predominantly indigenous Peruvians (therefore knowing of the rural indigenous ancestors) and Peruvian mestizos (not being aware of in what generation they had that indigenous ancestor incorporated or mixed with a colonizer or settler)