Is this something that is tracked back to the colonization of Mexican ? Yes , Spain established a caste system in Mexico and the rest of Hispanic America , I think in which the higher the percentage of European blood a person had , the higher their social status level was and even though the caste system was abolished after independence the upper classes in Mexico and the rest of LatAm are still mostly white or pretty fairskinned while the lowest classes are indigenous or dark skinned . Is it like the United States where the indigenous people have their own sovereignty but because of that they are largely cut off from the rest of society ? This too . I don ' t know how segregated they are in in comparison to America ' s indigenous people but here they usually live in slumspoor districts if they live in urban areas or have their own towns if they live in rural areas , some of these towns are also governed by indigenous laws , I don ' t think they have as much autonomy as they have in America , though .