Zambo ( or ) or cafuzo are racial terms used in the Spanish and Portuguese Empires and occasionally today to identify individuals in the Americas who are of mixed African and Amerindian ancestry (the analogous English term, considered a slur, is sambo). Historically, the racial cross between African slaves and Amerindians was referred to as a "zambaggoa", then "zambo", then "sambo". In the United States, the word "sambo" is thought to refer to the racial cross between a black slave and a white person.