Central American
The largest population of Central America, spanning from Mexico to Colombia and Venezuela, is of Mestizo descent – a mixture of Spanish, Native American, and African ancestry. Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, interestingly, have a greater Caucasian population, representing European migration. In contrast, indigenous Central Americans are Mayans, the descendants of the advanced Mayan civilization of pre-Colombian times. Ancient Central American civilizations produced many important innovations, including pyramid construction, complex mathematical and astronomical observations, early forms of medical surgery, accurate calendar systems, and complex agricultural methods. In contemporary society, many people with Central American ethnicity have settled among the nations in South America, reaching as far south as Uruguay and Argentina.

I got my results yesterday from Myheritage and got 11.6% Central American which seemed too high to me. My sister is begging to do it so sadly I bought another kit today from them since it was on sale for father's day. I guess I'll just divide whatever she gets on Central American by two to get the right idea how native she is. She 100% bori unlike me my bio father is southern European decent but i wasn't raised by him I was raised by her father. But can't wait for her results
You are reading so fast and not showing clearly what is written… but did you say that Mayans reached Uruguay and Argentina???
myheritage said I was 1 percent east asian, but dnaland gencove and ancestry said I was 1 percent native american. Does anyone know if myheritage has a hard time detecting na DNA? I never been estimated as east asian, at all.
Qué ases hablando ingles Si eres nativo
It seems Ancestry is more accurate…
My dna for Ancestry said 19% Native American. On My Heritage I came up as 28% Central American.
My family are descendants of the Aztecs and i got 29% central american. So how is this wrong ?? It doesnt specify which civilzations or specific parts so it could be any of those countries w/e
@Sapa Inti. so i contacted my heritage with this issue, because i had the same thing happen to me and i was not very pleased with their answers see below:
Thank you for your reply.
I understand that you were promised to be called within 24 hours. James, the representative with whom you spoke on March 12th, escalated the case to us, Tier II, and was supposed to inform you we will contact you in order to schedule a call as soon as possible. I am sorry for the misunderstanding, inconvenience and the confusion caused by from our end.
As you noticed, we currently support 42 different ethnicities, while there are thousands more ethnic groups all over the world. Some ethnicities are more distinctive and some groups share same components (SNPs) and are more similar to other groups.
The Central American model we have covers many nations. History shows similar migration patterns that influenced the groups living in the area that stretches from modern-days Texas to the Andes. The results are that people in all countries in between are similar to each other to a significant extent and therefore more difficult to differentiate from each other. Hence, our results would group them as members of the same ethnicities until a more specific breakdown will be launched.
As each and every one of those groups are unique, not necessarily sharing any cultural or civil background, we are facing a challenge choosing the right phrasing when naming this genetic group we found. We choose a name that we found closest to the mutual essence and neutral non-biased title: "Central American". Our intent is not to offend. However, grouping is inevitable.
We agree with you that "Central America" is a term for the geographic area in modern-days Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. Our map shows where people with the same genetics features are more likely to be found and doesn't only covers the official area. The same applies for our English, Iberian, Nigerian, Kenyan and some more ethnicity models. Suggestion for other names for this genetically-similar group are warmly welcome. Mesoamerican is one of the options we consider at the moment.
It was never the intention to offend any one or to remap the world. We are deeply sorry if any of our actions caused any inconvenience.
I hope it clarifies the matter. Please let me know if you have any other question or if there's anything else I can do for you.
Kind regards,
Ziv
MyHeritage Support team
I have 12% Iroquois Native American (New York area) DNA and MyHeritage gave me 15% Central American instead. MyHeritage has a lot of work to do.
Im confused im from Australia im irish scottish but dna test showed up native American opened it up showed chihuahua & durango and couple others has me stuffed
Congratulations! I have never seen a DNA percentage that high. https://www.yahoo.com/news/hidden-ancient-mayan-apos-megalopolis-110002872.html
mestizo people are look so weird
Ancestry, dnaland and gedmatch all were in the same ballpark but Myheritage took my Peruvian Native American component which was 13% across the board, and set it as 24% Central American. Based on my own knowledge of my family tree, I think MyHeritage is the one out of whack.
Mexico is not central America it's part of North America.!!!!!
Ancestry DNA gives ranges after multiple DNA studies. I got 24% Native American on ANCESTRY DNA and 36% on myheritage and I'm Puerto Rican. Most PRs have around 20% Native American. DNA studies are in there early stage the percentages aren't precise hence why for sites like ancestry DNA you get ranges. The areas provided though are usually accurate. The central American given is Native American just probably read differently since you're uploaded a coded dna file. Some ancestry dna video actually do match up with myheritage results for some Latinos from what I've seen but it's difficult to tell but I say be proud of the native roots. They established the countries we know of today and were the most advanced group of people during their time.
How do they determine central American from Mexico to South. The last i remember Mexico is in north America. Plus what about tribes on both sides of border. Yaqui,kumiay kikapoo and other nations. I worder if there cental Americans? I always thought el Salvador Nicaragua costa rica was central American!
Central America is only 7 countries Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama and Belize…Central America is Native American territory especially Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras…..Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama and Belize may be more African….Ecuador is South America… Cuba and Puerto Rico is Caribbean…..Ecuador is very much Native American….Cuba and PR is African or Euro
Yeah the results surprises you. I'm Salvadoran and I got 48% native America, I'm so light skin freckles and golden hair color 16% Iberian peninsula 9% Italian greek…the rest it's a bunch of different stuff that surprises me, African middle East, Asia, etc. I guess the DNA doesn't has to do with your physical appearance
Hmmmm I uploaded my DNA data to my heritage from ancestry and my heritage says I’m 11.6% Sephardic Jewish, and 3.3% Ashkenazi. Although on ancestry they just put me as 11% middle eastern and 2 % European Jewish … lol. So I thank my heritage for further breaking down that mysterious middle eastern dna !!! I didn’t know I was Jewish!! I’ve been trying to find other Latinos specifically other Mexicans such as myself and see if they have any Sephardic Jewish as well. I was so shocked!! I believe my Jewish ancestry might be recent? Anyways aside from that I agree with you and I really don’t like how they include mestizos as Central American.
I knew you were mestizo
Yeah, I don't recommend myheritage at all. I uploaded my ancestry dna results to myheritage after my birth mother did her dna on myheritage. Her biggest one was "English" and you get 50% of everything from each parent, right? It showed 0% "English" for me. 73% Central American. It's definitely not accurate.
I got just over 50% central american the rest euro: italia, scandanavia and england and 1.5 percent west African. So sounds like you are part of the Lost and Scattered tribes of Israel (Jacob) as well. I also found out I have a different Father based on my results.
This is what I thought. On 23andMe it said I was 100% European (Eastern European) on myheritage it said I was Baltic and Eastern European and 0.8% (I know not a lot) Central American. So I, a very Eastern European person wondered how that happened. I think they took a sample of DNA from a group of people that ancestry didn't take or 23andme didn't take. For example ancestry and 23andme ONLY took DNA from natives. Meaning most of those sample the people were either 100% or very close to being 100% native. I think the Central American is more of the Mestizo population. (European and native mixed). So I think my DNA didn't match any native DNA since if there actually is any, it is waaaayyyyy too far back to detect it in my DNA but if one of my distant relatives was a Mestizo, and the test I took, myheritage, sampled mestizos, it would show up in my DNA. Whereas the other tests didn't test for any mestizo or white populations living in central America. IDK if that makes any sense. 🙂
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