Mixed Race Day in Brazil Date in the current year: June 27, 2024

The date of June 27 was selected for two reasons. The number 27 refers to the 27 mixed-race representatives elected during the First Conference for the Promotion of Racial Equality held in Manaus in April 2005.

The month of June refers to the First National Conference for the Promotion of Racial Equality which was held in the city of Brasília in June 2005. During this conference, Helda Castro was registered as the only mixed-race representative. Castro was a caboclo, i.e. a person of European and Indigenous Brazilian origin.

Mixed Race Day was first established in Manaus in January 2006. Subsequently, other Brazilian cities and states followed suit.

Modern Brazilian society is made up of a confluence of people of different ethnic origins. The first interracial marriages in Brazil occurred in the early 16th century, when Portuguese colonizers married Native American women.

In general, Brazilians trace their origins from four main sources: Amerindians, Europeans, Africans and Asians, but the number of existing ethnic groups is very large. Mixed-race Brazilians are typically referred to as Pardos.