The New World has been, since the dawn of mankind, a melting pot of races and peoples, (…). It's indeed curious that the historic period of American evolution is nothing but the repetition of a series of ethnic developments that paved the way for the rise of human settlements. Since the discovery, America has continued to be an attraction for assortments of peoples and races as much as it was during the long pre-Hispanic formation process. As well as these peoples and these races have been -since the 16th century- the result of a new civilization with well-defined features and original patterns of its own -both in works inspired in the culture brought from the Old World and its independent creations- Amerindians picked up the inheritance of peoples and races that turned out to be key players in the aforesaid formation process. At the same time, it managed to build a civilization to call its own on common foundations that were eventually enriched by an array of inventions and creations in the Old World.

Paul Rivet, The Origin of American Man, Mexico, 1963.

Illustrations from Our Founding Fathers, Manuel Galich, Fondo Editorial Casa de las Americas, 2004.