Uruguayans

People of European ancestry comprise 87.7% of Uruguay's population according to the 2011 official Census.[15] Early Uruguayans are descendants of colonists from Spain and Portugal during the colonial period prior to 1810. Similar to the demographics of Argentina, more recent immigrants from Europe, largely from Italy, Germany and France, arrived in the great migratory wave during the late 19th century and early 20th century. Today, Uruguay's culture is influenced heavily by its European roots which is evident in its language, food and other aspects of everyday life.[16]

Up to 2.4% of the population are of Mestizo (European-Amerindian) ancestry according to the 2011 census.[15] People with Amerindian ancestry can be found in the north of Uruguay, primarily in Tacuarembó Department, where the Amerindian ancestry accounts for 20% of the population.

A 1996 census identified that 12,600 people in Uruguay were Amerindian descendants. In 2006, a census confirmed that there were 115,118 Uruguayans that descended from one Amerindian ethnic group, the Charrúas, reaching up to 4% of the country's population. In 2005, Sinthia Pagano, M.D conducted a genetic study, detecting the possibility that 38% of Uruguayans may have expressed partial genetic influence from the Amerindian population.[17][18]

Africans, Blacks and Mulattos in Uruguay are more or less 209,662 and they are mostly found in Montevideo, Rivera Department, Artigas Department, Salto Department and Cerro Largo Department.[19] A 2011 census marked that there are more than 300,000 African descendants and that 80% of Afro-Uruguayans are under the working class line.[20]

The Church of Saint Charles Borromeo in San Carlos is one of the oldest churches in Uruguay.

Uruguay has no official religion; church and state are officially separated,[23] and religious freedom is guaranteed. A 2008 survey by the INE of Uruguay showed Catholicism as the main religion, with 45.7% of the population; 9.0% are non-Catholic Christians, 0.6% are Animists or Umbandists (an Afro-Brazilian religion), and 0.4% Jewish. 30.1% reported believing in a god, but not belonging to any religion, while 14% were atheist or agnostic.[24]

Political observers consider Uruguay the most secular country in the Americas.[25] Uruguay's secularization began with the relatively minor role of the church in the colonial era, compared with other parts of the Spanish Empire. The small numbers of Uruguay's indigenous peoples and their fierce resistance to proselytism reduced the influence of the ecclesiastical authorities.[26]

In 1837 civil marriage was recognized, and in 1861 the state took over the running of public cemeteries. In 1907 divorce was legalized and, in 1909 all religious instruction was banned from state schools.[26] Under the influence of the innovative Colorado reformer José Batlle y Ordóñez (1903–1911), complete separation of church and state was introduced with the new constitution of 1917.[26]

Uruguay's capital has 12 synagogues, and a community of 20,000 Jews by 2011. With a peak of 50,000 during the mid-1960s, Uruguay has the world's highest rate of aliyah as a percentage of the Jewish population.[27]

The Baháʼí Faith[29] is also practiced, along with Afro-Brazilian religions such as Quimbanda, Candomblé, and [[

The Desfile de Llamadas carnival in Montevideo.

Music of Uruguay includes a number of local musical forms. The most distinctive ones are tango, murga, a form of musical theater, and candombe, an Afro-Uruguayan type of music which occur yearly during the Carnival period. There is also milonga, a folk guitar and song form deriving from Spanish traditions and related to similar forms found in many Hispanic-American countries.

"La cumparsita" (little street procession, a grammatical diminutive of la comparsa) is a tango written in 1916 by the Uruguayan musician Gerardo Matos Rodríguez, It is among the most famous and recognizable tangos of all time.[30]

The popular music of Uruguay, which focuses on rock, jazz, and many other forms, frequently makes reference to the distinctly Uruguayan sounds mentioned above. The group Los Shakers, which was a rendition of The Beatlesdeserve a special mention as the band that kickstarted the Uruguayan rock scene.

The earliest securely dated depiction of a Uruguayan gaucho.[31] (1820)

The gaucho is a national symbol in Uruguay and Argentina but is also a strong culture in Paraguay and southern Brazil and Chile. Gauchos became greatly admired and renowned in legends, folklore and literature and became an important part of their regional cultural tradition.[32]