the belizean elite consists of people of different status, prestige, and ethnicity. at the top of the power hierarchy are local whites and light-skinned descendants of the nineteenth-century creole elite. the next group consists of creole and mestizo commercial and professional families whose ancestors first came to political and economic prominence during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. next in status are some of the lebanese and palestinian merchant families who immigrated to belize in the early twentieth century.