white men who were spanish colonizers shipped african slaves to latin american countries such as colombia, brazil, mexico, honduras, el salvador, venezuela, cuba, guatemala, panama, costa rica, puerto rico and the dominican republic because of the decline of native americans from smallpox and disease. native americans were initially slaves but white europeans turned to africans because of the mass decline of the native american population. many mestizos and hispanics have african dna from the slave trade because of the race mixing with white people, african slaves and native americans. many african ex-slaves in latin america are mixed race and have native american and spanish ancestry. "mestizaje" in latin america by the spanish was similar to the racial whitening that happened in brazil.