The Guanches of the Canary Islands

The Guanches are the original inhabitants of the Canary Islands. However, today’s population has such a low percentage of the genes from the original ones, that the Guanches are considered extinct. Sort of like the Neanderthals, even though Europeans still carry some of their DNA.

According to a recent study by Fregel et al. 2009, in spite of the geographic nearness between the Canary Islands and Morocco, the genetic heritage of the Canary islands male lineages, is mainly from European origin. Indeed, nearly 67% of the haplogroups resulting from are Euro–Eurasian (R1a (2.76%), R1b (50.62%), I (9.66%) and G (3.99%)). Unsurprisingly the Spanish conquest brought the genetic base of the current male population of the Canary Islands. Nevertheless, the second most important Haplogroup family is from Northern Africa, Near and Middle East. E1b1b (14% including 8.30% of the typical Berber haplogroup E-M81), E1b1a and E1a (1.50%), J (14%) and T (3%) Haplogroups are present at a rate of 33%.

White Puerto Ricans are Puerto Ricans whose ancestry is of predominant European or other white descent, most notably from Spain (especially the Canary Islands).

As of 2010 US census, people who self-identified as white constituted the majority in Puerto Rico, making up 75.8% of the population. People who identified themselves as being of mixed race origin, predominantly of West African and European ancestry, constitute an additional 11.1% of the population.

One thing unique about the Guanches is that the percentage of blood type O is extremely high. More than the frequency of blood type O amongst the Berbers where the frequency is as high as over 80 percent (see page 25):

So what about the rh factor and the look of the original Guanches?

According to “EDO NYLAND’S ADDITIONAL COMMENTS”:

“ I find it very hard to believe that any of the original Guanches was blond and blue eyed. Virtually all blond people are Rh-positive. The Berbers from Morocco are Rh-negative and they have been sailing this part of the ocean for well over 12,000 years. The nearest blond people were the Shardana from Cyrenaica (Kirru-unai-ika) in eastern Libya and they concentrated their activities in the Black Sea, not the Atlantic ocean. There is no evidence of these two very different races mixing in the Canaries until the blond Spaniards arrived. It will take some convincing to believe that the original Guanches were blond. Until then it would be best to consider that they were dark-featured Berbers.”

And here is a study regarding the rh factor:

The Rh results are essentially those of a European population. This is shown
especially by the relatively high frequency of cde, though this is somewhat below
the values (about 40 per cent.) found in most of Europe north of the Mediterranean
area. There is some doubt as to the range of variation of cde frequency which a full
survey of Berbers would show. Negroes certainly have a much lower frequency.
The most important of the other frequencies are those of cDe and cDes. The total
of these, about I I per cent., is about one fifth of that to be found in most west
African negro peoples, and considerably above that observed in north-western
Europe; it suggests a detectable negroid component in these Canary Islanders. So,
too, do the values found for es, cDes and V considered alone.

Source:
Blood Groups and the Affinities of the Canary Islanders

cde is the true rh negative allele.
If the frequency of the rh negative allele is x, then the frequency of rh negative homozygotes is x².

That would mean the percentage of rh negatives would be around 16%.

More information is needed.

See also:

The Geographic and Racial Distribution of ABO and Rh Blood Types and Tasters of PTC in Puerto Rico
Blood Type Frequencies in Cuba