Ecuadorian
Ecuadorians are people identified with Ecuador, a country in South America, its citizens or their descendants abroad who identify with the Ecuadorian culture and descent. Ecuador was once the second empire of the Incas. Pre-Columbian Ecuador included numerous indigenous cultures, who thrived for thousands of years before the ascent of the Incan Empire. Las Vegas culture of coastal Ecuador is one of the oldest cultures in the Americas. The Valdivia culture in the Pacific coast region is a well-known early Ecuadorian culture. The Europeans who arrived over five centuries ago, and ultimately the sub-Saharan Africans who were imported to New Spain as slaves during the same period. Europeans mixed with the Indigenous people of Ecuador creating the Mestizos and some Europeans also mixed with the black slaves. As of 2010, 77.4% of the population identified as Mestizos, a mix of Spanish and Amerindian ancestry, up from 71.9% in 2000.
