A lot of bi-racial people call themselves white.
Sicilians and Sardinians with olive skin and some with kinky hair call themselves white although just by looking at them we know they have North African/Moorish blood in them.
A simple genetic test of Costa Rica will show 25% plus Amer-Indian DNA in the vast majority of the population.
But one must also understand the differences when Westerners call themselves white and Latin Americans call themselves white. To most Westerners it is a racial/genetic demarcations.
In most of Latin America if you look at least South European “white”,not necessarily North European white,you speak only European languages and are a Christian that denotes you as “white” even though people are aware they have a grandfather or grandmother who was full blooded Amer-Indian or half Amer-Indian. This is how Brazil gets to the “we are a 47% white,43% mulatto, 6% black” plurality white nation. One only needs to look at TV images from the World Cup to know there is a massive population of Mestizos in Brazil that are classified as “white.” If we use a pre-Antebellum Southern definition of “white” where one drop of non European blood makes you a half-breed then 99% of the Costa Rican population is half-breeds excluding only the most recent immigrants from Europe.
I think that it is culturally interesting that here in the US any drop of Indian blood is celebrated (even by US Senators) while in most of Latin America Indios are generally despised—viewed as dirty and backward. Most would never admit Indian blood, so as far as they are concerned, they’re not mestizo. If one lives a modern, western lifestyle, one is white. (I think that’s pretty much what you said.
Anyway, I like Costa Rica and I like Costa Ricans. I don’t think their country would be improved by the refuge flood. Sad thing is I don’t think our country will be improved by it either, but we are told that they are our future.