You are both right, in my opinion-my ancestors were mostly Spaniards-but there is enough Native American DNA in the mix starting about 400-500 years ago to make us non-nobles all “mestizos”-and those ancestors chose to move to what is now W Texas and NM-which was a frontier populated by Natives-including relatives of the displaced Aztecs, their bloodthirsty Apache cousins and others-before 1800 to get away from the Spanish govt which they were terrified of...
So a lot of common people considered a wilderness full of hostile Natives a better place to come and make a living than around the elites in the “civilized” interior of Mexico-can’t really blame them-the Spaniards had this thing called “the inquisition”, and they taught their Native captives some really interesting methods of torture, too-they were no better than the Native Americans, in my opinion-the best thing my Spanish ancestors ever did was leave the Spanish Pyrenees, get passage on a ship to the new world and widen their gene pool by breeding with some Native Americans and leave the corruption and cruelty of the Spanish ruling class behind...
My ancestors were mestizos and were oppressed-now gimme my reparations-I’m sure I must be owed some$$$$...
lol. You got it right.