Casta
Encyclopedia
Casta (ˈkasta, ˈkaʃtɐ) is a Portuguese
and Spanish
term used in seventeenth and eighteenth centuries mainly in Spanish America
to describe as a whole the mixed-race people which appeared in the post-Conquest period
. A parallel system of categorization based on the degree of acculturation to Hispanic culture
, which distinguished between gente de razón
(Hispanics) and gente sin razón (non-acculturated natives), concurrently existed and worked together with the idea of casta.
, Portuguese
and other Iberian languages since the Middle Ages), meaning "lineage", "breed
" or "race." It is derived from the older Latin word castus, "chaste," implying that the lineage has been kept pure. Casta gave rise to the English
word caste
during the Early Modern Period
.
; (2) Criollo
(feminine, criolla), a person of Spanish descent born in the New World; (3) Indio
(fem. india), a person who is descendent of the original inhabitants of the Americas; and (4) Negro (fem. negra) - a person of black African
descent, usually a slave or their free descendants.
General racial groupings had their own set of privileges and restrictions, both legal and customary. So, for example, only Spaniards and Indians, who were deemed to be the original societies of the Spanish dominions, had recognized aristocracies. Also, in America and other overseas possessions, all Spaniards, regardless of their family's class background in Europe, came to consider themselves equal to the Peninsular hidalgía
and expected to be treated as such. Access to these privileges and even a person's perceived and accepted racial classification, however, were also determined by that person's socioeconomic
standing in society.
Persons of mixed race were collectively referred to as "castas". Long lists of different terms, used to identify types of people with specific racial or ethnic heritages, were developed by the late seventeenth century. By the end of the colonial period in 1821, over one hundred categories of possible variations of mixture existed. The terms for the more complex racial mixtures tended to vary in meaning and use and from region to region. (For example, different sets of casta paintings will give a different set of terms and interpretations of their meaning.) For the most part, only the first few terms in the lists were used in documents and everyday life, the general descending order of precedence being:
Other fanciful terms existed, such as a torna atrás (literally, "turns back") and tente en el aire ("hold-yourself-in-midair") in New Spain or a requinterón in Peru
, which implied that a child of only one-sixteenth Black ancestry is born looking Black to seemingly white parents. These terms were rarely used in legal documents and existed mostly in the New Spanish phenomenon of Casta paintings (pinturas de castas), which showed possible mixtures down to several generations.
in organizing knowledge and scientific description, resulted in the commission of many series of pictures that document the racial combinations that existed in the exotic lands that Spain possessed on the other side of the world. Many sets of these paintings still exist (around one hundred complete sets in museums and private collections and many more individual paintings), of varying artistic quality, usually consisting of sixteen paintings representing as many racial combinations. Some of the finer sets were done by prominent Mexican artists, such as Miguel Cabrera
.
The overall themes that emerge in these paintings are the "supremacy of the Spaniards," the possibility that Indians could become Spaniards through miscegenation with Spaniards and the "regression to an earlier moment of racial development" that mixing with Blacks would cause to Spaniards. These series generally depict the descendants of Indians becoming Spanish after three generations of intermarriage with Spaniards (usually the, "De español y castiza, español" painting). In contrast, mixtures with Blacks, both by Indians and Spaniards, led to a bewildering number of combinations, with "fanciful terms" to describe them. Instead of leading to a new racial type or equilibrium, they led to apparent disorder. Terms such as the above-mentioned tente en el aire and no te entiendo ("I don't understand you")—and others based on terms used for animals: mulato (mule) and lobo (wolf)—reflect the fear and mistrust that Spanish officials, society and those who commissioned these paintings saw these new racial types.
At the same time, it must be emphasized that these paintings reflected the views of the economically established Criollo society and officialdom. Castas defined themselves in different ways, and how they were recorded in official records was a process of negotiation between the casta and the person creating the document, whether it was a birth certificate, a marriage certificate or a court deposition. In real life, many casta individuals were assigned different racial categories in different documents, revealing the fluid nature of racial identity in colonial, Spanish America
n society.
makes it appear as if differentiation based upon privileges applied only to the distinction between Christians and Jews and Muslims; this was later extended to distinguish clearly between Catholics and Protestants. (The New World was originally divided between Spain and Portugal, both Catholic countries.) However, certificates of Limpieza de sangre could be bought, and were extended to mulattos, blacks and others in Nueva Espagña.
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
and Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
term used in seventeenth and eighteenth centuries mainly in Spanish America
Hispanic America
Hispanic America or Spanish America is the region comprising the American countries inhabited by Spanish-speaking populations.These countries have significant commonalities with each other and with Spain, whose colonies they formerly were...
to describe as a whole the mixed-race people which appeared in the post-Conquest period
Spanish colonization of the Americas
Colonial expansion under the Spanish Empire was initiated by the Spanish conquistadores and developed by the Monarchy of Spain through its administrators and missionaries. The motivations for colonial expansion were trade and the spread of the Christian faith through indigenous conversions...
. A parallel system of categorization based on the degree of acculturation to Hispanic culture
Hispanic
Hispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...
, which distinguished between gente de razón
Gente de razón
Gente de razón is a Spanish term used in colonial and modern Hispanic America to refer to people who were culturally Hispanic. It was a social distinction that existed alongside the racial categories of the sistema de castas...
(Hispanics) and gente sin razón (non-acculturated natives), concurrently existed and worked together with the idea of casta.
Etymology
Casta is an Iberian word (existing in SpanishSpanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
and other Iberian languages since the Middle Ages), meaning "lineage", "breed
Breed
A breed is a group of domestic animals or plants with a homogeneous appearance, behavior, and other characteristics that distinguish it from other animals or plants of the same species. Despite the centrality of the idea of "breeds" to animal husbandry, there is no scientifically accepted...
" or "race." It is derived from the older Latin word castus, "chaste," implying that the lineage has been kept pure. Casta gave rise to the English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
word caste
Caste
Caste is an elaborate and complex social system that combines elements of endogamy, occupation, culture, social class, tribal affiliation and political power. It should not be confused with race or social class, e.g. members of different castes in one society may belong to the same race, as in India...
during the Early Modern Period
Early modern Europe
Early modern Europe is the term used by historians to refer to a period in the history of Europe which spanned the centuries between the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, roughly the late 15th century to the late 18th century...
.
Castas
During the Spanish colonial period, Spaniards developed a complex caste system based on race, which was used for social control and which also determined a person's importance in society. There were four main categories of race: (1) Peninsular, a Spaniard born in SpainSpain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
; (2) Criollo
Criollo people
The Criollo class ranked below that of the Iberian Peninsulares, the high-born permanent residence colonists born in Spain. But Criollos were higher status/rank than all other castes—people of mixed descent, Amerindians, and enslaved Africans...
(feminine, criolla), a person of Spanish descent born in the New World; (3) Indio
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
(fem. india), a person who is descendent of the original inhabitants of the Americas; and (4) Negro (fem. negra) - a person of black African
Black people
The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...
descent, usually a slave or their free descendants.
General racial groupings had their own set of privileges and restrictions, both legal and customary. So, for example, only Spaniards and Indians, who were deemed to be the original societies of the Spanish dominions, had recognized aristocracies. Also, in America and other overseas possessions, all Spaniards, regardless of their family's class background in Europe, came to consider themselves equal to the Peninsular hidalgía
Hidalgo (Spanish nobility)
A hidalgo or fidalgo is a member of the Spanish and Portuguese nobility. In popular usage it has come to mean the non-titled nobility. Hidalgos were exempt from paying taxes, but did not necessarily own real property...
and expected to be treated as such. Access to these privileges and even a person's perceived and accepted racial classification, however, were also determined by that person's socioeconomic
Socioeconomics
Socioeconomics or socio-economics or social economics is an umbrella term with different usages. 'Social economics' may refer broadly to the "use of economics in the study of society." More narrowly, contemporary practice considers behavioral interactions of individuals and groups through social...
standing in society.
Persons of mixed race were collectively referred to as "castas". Long lists of different terms, used to identify types of people with specific racial or ethnic heritages, were developed by the late seventeenth century. By the end of the colonial period in 1821, over one hundred categories of possible variations of mixture existed. The terms for the more complex racial mixtures tended to vary in meaning and use and from region to region. (For example, different sets of casta paintings will give a different set of terms and interpretations of their meaning.) For the most part, only the first few terms in the lists were used in documents and everyday life, the general descending order of precedence being:
- Spaniards (Españoles)
- These were persons of Spanish descent. People of other European descent who had settled in Spanish America and adapted to HispanicHispanicHispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...
culture, such as Pedro de GantePedro de GanteFray Pieter van der Moere, also known as Fray Pedro de Gante or Pedro de Mura was a Franciscan missionary in sixteenth century Mexico. Born in Geraardsbergen in present day Belgium, he was of Flemish descent...
and the Marquises of OsornoAmbrosio O'Higgins, Marquis of OsornoAmbrosio Bernardo O'Higgins, 1st Marquis of Osorno born Ambrose Bernard O'Higgins , was a member of the O'Higgins family and an Irish-born Spanish colonial administrator...
and CroixCarlos Francisco de Croix, marqués de CroixCarlos Francisco de Croix, marqués de Croix , was a Spanish general and viceroy of New Spain, from August 25, 1766 to September 22, 1771, a period of considerable turbulence....
, would have also been considered Españoles. Also, as noted above, and below under "Mestizos" and "Castizos," many persons with some AmerindianIndigenous peoples of the AmericasThe indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
ancestry were considered Españoles. Españoles were one of the three original "races," the other two being Indians and Blacks. Both immigrant and American-born Españoles generally shared the same rights and privileges, although there were a few cases in which the law differentiated between them. For example, it became customary in some municipal councilsCabildo (council)For a discussion of the contemporary Spanish and Latin American cabildo, see Ayuntamiento.A cabildo or ayuntamiento was a former Spanish, colonial administrative council that governed a municipality. Cabildos were sometimes appointed, sometimes elected, but were considered to be representative of...
for the office of alcaldeAlcaldeAlcalde , or Alcalde ordinario, is the traditional Spanish municipal magistrate, who had both judicial and administrative functions. An alcalde was, in the absence of a corregidor, the presiding officer of the Castilian cabildo and judge of first instance of a town...
to alternate between a EuropeanPeninsularesIn the colonial caste system of Spanish America, a peninsular was a Spanish-born Spaniard or mainland Spaniard residing in the New World, as opposed to a person of full Spanish descent born in the Americas or Philippines...
and an AmericanCriollo peopleThe Criollo class ranked below that of the Iberian Peninsulares, the high-born permanent residence colonists born in Spain. But Criollos were higher status/rank than all other castes—people of mixed descent, Amerindians, and enslaved Africans...
. Spaniards were therefore divided into:- PeninsularesPeninsularesIn the colonial caste system of Spanish America, a peninsular was a Spanish-born Spaniard or mainland Spaniard residing in the New World, as opposed to a person of full Spanish descent born in the Americas or Philippines...
(Españoles europeos)
- Persons of SpanishSpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
descent born in Spain (i.e., from the Iberian PeninsulaIberian PeninsulaThe Iberian Peninsula , sometimes called Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes the modern-day sovereign states of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar...
, hence their name). Generally, there were two groups of Peninsulares. The first group includes those that were appointed to important jobs in the government, the army and the Catholic Church by the Crown. This system was intended to perpetuate the ties of the governing elite to the Spanish crown. The theory was that an outsider should be appointed to rule over a certain society, therefore a New Spaniard would not be appointed Viceroy of New Spain. These officials usually had a long history of service to the Crown and moved around the Empire frequently. They usually did not live permanently in any one place in Latin America. The second group of Peninsulares did settle permanently in a specific region and came to associate with it. The first wave were the original settlers themselves, the ConquistadorConquistadorConquistadors were Spanish soldiers, explorers, and adventurers who brought much of the Americas under the control of Spain in the 15th to 16th centuries, following Europe's discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492...
s, who essentially transformed themselves into lordLordLord is a title with various meanings. It can denote a prince or a feudal superior . The title today is mostly used in connection with the peerage of the United Kingdom or its predecessor countries, although some users of the title do not themselves hold peerages, and use it 'by courtesy'...
s of an area through their act of conquest. In the centuries after the Conquest, more Peninsulares continued to emigrate under different circumstances, usually for commercial reasons. Some even came as indentured servantIndentured servantIndentured servitude refers to the historical practice of contracting to work for a fixed period of time, typically three to seven years, in exchange for transportation, food, clothing, lodging and other necessities during the term of indenture. Usually the father made the arrangements and signed...
s to established Criollo families. Therefore, there were Peninsulares of all socioeconomic classes in America. Once they settled, they tended to form families, so Peninsulares and Criollos were united and divided by family ties and tensions.- CriolloCriollo peopleThe Criollo class ranked below that of the Iberian Peninsulares, the high-born permanent residence colonists born in Spain. But Criollos were higher status/rank than all other castes—people of mixed descent, Amerindians, and enslaved Africans...
s (Españoles criollos or Españoles americanos)
- Criollo
- A Spanish term meaning "native born and raised," criollo historically was applied to both white and black non-indigenous persons born in the Americas. In the contemporary historical literature, the term usually means only people who in theory were of full direct Spanish ancestry, born in the Americas. In reality white Criollos could also have some native ancestry, but this would be disregarded for families who had maintained a certain status.), As the second- or third-generation of Spanish families, some Criollos owned mines, ranches, or haciendas. Many of these were extremely wealthy and belonged to the high nobility of the Spanish Empire. Still, most were simply part of what could be termed the petite bourgeoisiePetite bourgeoisiePetit-bourgeois or petty bourgeois is a term that originally referred to the members of the lower middle social classes in the 18th and early 19th centuries...
or even outright poor. As life-long residents of America, they, like all other residents of these areas, often participated in contrabandContrabandThe word contraband, reported in English since 1529, from Medieval French contrebande "a smuggling," denotes any item which, relating to its nature, is illegal to be possessed or sold....
, since the traditional monopolies of SevilleSevilleSeville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...
, and later CádizCádizCadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....
, could not supply all their trade needs. (They were more than occasionally aided by royal officials turning a blind eye to this activity). Criollos tended to be appointed to the lower-level government jobs—they had sizable representation in the municipal councils—and with the sale of offices that began in the late sixteenth century, they gained access to the high-level posts, such as judges on the regional audiencias. The nineteenth-century wars of independence are often cast, then and now, as a struggle between Peninsulares and Criollos, but both groups can be found on both sides of the wars.
- Peninsulares
- IndiansIndigenous peoples of the AmericasThe indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
(Indios)
- The original inhabitants of the Americas and considered to be one of the three "pure races" in Spanish America, the law treated them as minorMinor (law)In law, a minor is a person under a certain age — the age of majority — which legally demarcates childhood from adulthood; the age depends upon jurisdiction and application, but is typically 18...
s, and as such were to be protected by royal officials, but in reality were often abused by the local elites. After the initial conquest, the elites of the IncaInca EmpireThe Inca Empire, or Inka Empire , was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political and military center of the empire was located in Cusco in modern-day Peru. The Inca civilization arose from the highlands of Peru sometime in the early 13th century...
, AztecAztecThe Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...
and other Indian states were assimilated into the Spanish nobility through intermarriage. The regional Native nobility, where it existed, was recognized and redefined along European standards by the Spanish and had to deal with the difficulty of existing in a colonial society, but it remained in place until independence. Indians could belong to any economic class depending on their personal wealth.- MestizoMestizoMestizo is a term traditionally used in Latin America, Philippines and Spain for people of mixed European and Native American heritage or descent...
s
- Mestizo
- Persons with one Spanish parent and one Indian parent. The term was originally associated with illegitimacy because in the generations after the Conquest, mixed-race children born in wedlock were assigned either a simple Indian or Spanish identity, depending with which culture they were raised. (See HyperdescentHyperdescentHyperdescent is the practice of classifying a child of mixed race ancestry in the more socially dominant of the parents' races.Hyperdescent is the opposite of hypodescent...
and HypodescentHypodescentIn societies that regard some races of people as dominant or superior and others as subordinate or inferior, hypodescent is the automatic assignment of children of a mixed union or mating between members of different socioeconomic groups or ethnic groups to the subordinate group...
.) The number of official Mestizos rises in censuses only after the second half of the seventeenth century, when a sizable and stable community of mixed-race people with no claims on being either Indian or Spanish appeared.- CastizoCastizoCastizo is a Spanish word with a general meaning of "pure" or "genuine". The feminine form is castiza. From this meaning it evolved other meanings, such as "typical of an area" and it was also used for one of the colonial Spanish race categories, the castas, that evolved in the seventeenth...
s
- Castizo
- One of the many terms, like the ones below, used to describe people with varying degrees of racial mixture. In this case Castizos were people with one Mestizo parent and one Spanish parent. The children of a Castizo and a Spaniard, or a Castizo him- or herself, were often classified and accepted as a Criollo Spaniard.
- CholoCholoCholo is an ethnic slur created by Hispanic criollos in the 16th century, and it has been applied to individuals of mixed or pure American Indian ancestry, or other racially mixed origin. The precise usage of "cholo" has varied widely in different times and places...
s or Coyotes
- Cholo
- Persons with one Indian parent and one Mestizo parent.
- MulattoMulattoMulatto denotes a person with one white parent and one black parent, or more broadly, a person of mixed black and white ancestry. Contemporary usage of the term varies greatly, and the broader sense of the term makes its application rather subjective, as not all people of mixed white and black...
s or PardoPardoIn Brazil, Pardo is a race/colour category used by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics in Brazilian censuses. It is a Portuguese word that encompasses various shades of brown, but is usually translated as "grayish-brown"...
s
- Mulatto
- Persons of the first generation of a Spanish and Black mix. If they were born into slavery (that is their mother was a slave), they would be slaves, unless freed by their master or were manumitted. Further terms to describe other degrees of mixture included, among many others, Morisco, (not to be confused with the peninsular MoriscoMoriscoMoriscos or Mouriscos , meaning "Moorish", were the converted Christian inhabitants of Spain and Portugal of Muslim heritage. Over time the term was used in a pejorative sense applied to those nominal Catholics who were suspected of secretly practicing Islam.-Demographics:By the beginning of the...
, from which the term was obviously borrowed) a person of Mulatto and Spanish parents, i.e., a quadroonQuadroonQuadroon, and the associated words octoroon and quintroon are terms that, historically, were applied to define the ancestry of people of mixed-race, generally of African and Caucasian ancestry, but also, within Australia, to those of Aboriginal and Caucasian ancestry...
, and Albino (derived from albinoAlbinismAlbinism is a congenital disorder characterized by the complete or partial absence of pigment in the skin, hair and eyes due to absence or defect of an enzyme involved in the production of melanin...
), a person of Morisco and Spanish parents, i.e., an octoroon.- ZamboZamboZambo 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...
s
- Zambo
- Persons who were of mixed Indian and Black ancestry. As with Mulattos, many other terms existed to describe the degree of mixture. These included Chino and Lobo. Chino usually described someone as having Mulatto and Indian parents. (Since there was some immigration from the Spanish East IndiesSpanish East IndiesSpanish East Indies was a term used to describe Spanish territories in Asia-Pacific which lasted for three centuries . With the seat of government in Manila, the territory encompassed the Philippine Islands, Guam and the Mariana Islands, the Caroline Islands, and for a period of time, parts of...
during the colonial period, chino is often confused, even by contemporary historians, as a word for AsianAsian peopleAsian people or Asiatic people is a term with multiple meanings that refers to people who descend from a portion of Asia's population.- Central Asia :...
peoples, which is the primary meaning of the word, but not usually in the context of the castas. Chino or china is still used in many Latin American countries as a term of endearmentTerm of endearmentA term of endearment is a word or phrase used to address and/or describe a person, animal or inanimate object for which the speaker feels love or affection...
for a light-skinned person of African ancestry. Lobo could describe a person of Black and Indian parents (and therefore, a synonymSynonymSynonyms are different words with almost identical or similar meanings. Words that are synonyms are said to be synonymous, and the state of being a synonym is called synonymy. The word comes from Ancient Greek syn and onoma . The words car and automobile are synonyms...
for Zambo), as in the image gallery below, or someone of Indian and Torna atrás parents.- BlacksBlack peopleThe term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...
(Negros)
- Blacks
- With Spaniards and Indians, this was the third original "race" in this paradigm, but low on the social scale because of their association with slavery. These were people of full Sub-Saharan AfricaSub-Saharan AfricaSub-Saharan Africa as a geographical term refers to the area of the African continent which lies south of the Sahara. A political definition of Sub-Saharan Africa, instead, covers all African countries which are fully or partially located south of the Sahara...
n descent. Many, especially among the first generation, were slaves, but there were sizable free-Black communities. Distinction was made between Blacks born in Africa (negros bozales) and therefore possibly less acculturated, Blacks born in the Iberian Peninsula (Black Ladinos), and Blacks born in the Indies, these sometimes referred to as negros criollos. Their low social status was enforced legally. They were prohibited by law from many positions, such as entering the priesthood, and their testimony in court was valued less than others. But they could join militiaMilitiaThe term militia is commonly used today to refer to a military force composed of ordinary citizens to provide defense, emergency law enforcement, or paramilitary service, in times of emergency without being paid a regular salary or committed to a fixed term of service. It is a polyseme with...
s created especially for them. In contrast with the binary "one-drop ruleOne-drop ruleThe one-drop rule is a historical colloquial term in the United States for the social classification as black of individuals with any African ancestry; meaning any person with "one drop of black blood" was considered black...
", which evolved in the late-nineteenth-century United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, people of mixed-Black ancestry were recognized as multiple separate groups, as noted above.
Other fanciful terms existed, such as a torna atrás (literally, "turns back") and tente en el aire ("hold-yourself-in-midair") in New Spain or a requinterón in Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, which implied that a child of only one-sixteenth Black ancestry is born looking Black to seemingly white parents. These terms were rarely used in legal documents and existed mostly in the New Spanish phenomenon of Casta paintings (pinturas de castas), which showed possible mixtures down to several generations.
Pintura de castas
The interest of the Spanish EnlightenmentEnlightenment Spain
The Age of Enlightenment came to Spain in the eighteenth century with a new Bourbon dynasty after the decay of the Spanish economy, bureaucracy, and empire in the latter years of the former Habsburg dynasty...
in organizing knowledge and scientific description, resulted in the commission of many series of pictures that document the racial combinations that existed in the exotic lands that Spain possessed on the other side of the world. Many sets of these paintings still exist (around one hundred complete sets in museums and private collections and many more individual paintings), of varying artistic quality, usually consisting of sixteen paintings representing as many racial combinations. Some of the finer sets were done by prominent Mexican artists, such as Miguel Cabrera
Miguel Cabrera (painter)
Miguel Mateo Maldonado y Cabrera was an indigenous Zapotec painter during the Viceroyalty of New Spain, today's Mexico. During his lifetime, he was recognized as the greatest painter in all of New Spain....
.
The overall themes that emerge in these paintings are the "supremacy of the Spaniards," the possibility that Indians could become Spaniards through miscegenation with Spaniards and the "regression to an earlier moment of racial development" that mixing with Blacks would cause to Spaniards. These series generally depict the descendants of Indians becoming Spanish after three generations of intermarriage with Spaniards (usually the, "De español y castiza, español" painting). In contrast, mixtures with Blacks, both by Indians and Spaniards, led to a bewildering number of combinations, with "fanciful terms" to describe them. Instead of leading to a new racial type or equilibrium, they led to apparent disorder. Terms such as the above-mentioned tente en el aire and no te entiendo ("I don't understand you")—and others based on terms used for animals: mulato (mule) and lobo (wolf)—reflect the fear and mistrust that Spanish officials, society and those who commissioned these paintings saw these new racial types.
At the same time, it must be emphasized that these paintings reflected the views of the economically established Criollo society and officialdom. Castas defined themselves in different ways, and how they were recorded in official records was a process of negotiation between the casta and the person creating the document, whether it was a birth certificate, a marriage certificate or a court deposition. In real life, many casta individuals were assigned different racial categories in different documents, revealing the fluid nature of racial identity in colonial, Spanish America
Hispanic America
Hispanic America or Spanish America is the region comprising the American countries inhabited by Spanish-speaking populations.These countries have significant commonalities with each other and with Spain, whose colonies they formerly were...
n society.
Sample sets of Casta Paintings
Presented here are casta lists from three sets of paintings. Note that they only agree on the first five combinations, which are essentially the Indian-White ones. There is no agreement on the Black mixtures, however. Also, no one list should be taken as "authoritative." These terms would have varied from region to region and across time periods. The lists here probably reflect the names that the artist knew or preferred, the ones the patron requested to be painted, or a combination of both.| Miguel Cabrera, 1763 | Anonymous (Museo del Virreinato, above) | Andrés de Islas, 1774 |
1. De Español y d'India; Mestisa 2. De español y Mestiza, Castiza 3. De Español y Castiza, Español 4. De Español y Negra, Mulata 5. De Español y Mulata; Morisca 6. De Español y Morisca; Albina 7. De Español y Albina; Torna atrás 8. De Español y Torna atrás; Tente en el aire 9. De Negro y d'India, China cambuja. 10. De Chino cambujo y d'India; Loba 11. De Lobo y d'India, Albarazado 12. De Albarazado y Mestiza, Barcino 13 De Indio y Barcina; Zambuigua 14. De Castizo y Mestiza; Chamizo 15. De Mestizo y d'India; Coyote 16. Indios gentiles (Heathen Indians) |
1. Español con India, Mestizo 2. Mestizo con Española, Castizo 3. Castiza con Español, Española 4. Español con Negra, Mulato 5. Mulato con Española, Morisca 6. Morisco con Española, Chino 7. Chino con India, Salta atrás 8. Salta atras con Mulata, Lobo 9. Lobo con China, Gíbaro (Jíbaro Jíbaro Jíbaro is a term from the Taíno words "jiba" and "ro", that means forest people, commonly used in Puerto Rico to refer to mountain-dwelling peasants, but in modern times it has gained a broader cultural meaning.-History:... ) 10. Gíbaro con Mulata, Albarazado 11. Albarazado con Negra, Cambujo 12. Cambujo con India, Sambiaga (Zambiaga) 13. Sambiago con Loba, Calpamulato 14. Calpamulto con Cambuja, Tente en el aire 15. Tente en el aire con Mulata, No te entiendo 16. No te entiendo con India, Torna atrás |
1. De Español e India, nace Mestizo 2. De Español y Mestiza, nace Castizo 3. De Castizo y Española, nace Española 4. De Español y Negra, nace Mulata 5. De Español y Mulata, nace Morisco 6. De Español y Morisca, nace Albino 7. De Español y Albina, nace Torna atrás 8. De Indio y Negra, nace Lobo 9. De Indio y Mestiza, nace Coyote 10. De Lobo y Negra, nace Chino 11. De Chino e India, nace Cambujo 12. De Cambujo e India, nace Tente en el aire 13. De Tente en el aire y Mulata, nace Albarazado 14. De Albarazado e India, nace Barcino 15. De Barcino y Cambuja, nace Calpamulato 16. Indios Mecos bárbaros (Barbarian Meco Indians Chichimeca Chichimeca was the name that the Nahua peoples of Mexico generically applied to a wide range of semi-nomadic peoples who inhabited the north of modern-day Mexico and southwestern United States, and carried the same sense as the European term "barbarian"... ) |
See Also
The discussion of Limpieza de sangreLimpieza de sangre
Limpieza de sangre , Limpeza de sangue or Neteja de sang , meaning "cleanliness of blood", played an important role in modern Iberian history....
makes it appear as if differentiation based upon privileges applied only to the distinction between Christians and Jews and Muslims; this was later extended to distinguish clearly between Catholics and Protestants. (The New World was originally divided between Spain and Portugal, both Catholic countries.) However, certificates of Limpieza de sangre could be bought, and were extended to mulattos, blacks and others in Nueva Espagña.
External links
- "Casta Paintings" An example of one of the many things that can be found in Breamore House that has attracted a lot of interest over the years. This collection of Casta paintings is believed to be the only one in United Kingdom. The collection of fourteen paintings, was commissioned for the King of Spain in 1715 and painted by Mexican artist Juan Rodríguez Juárez.
- Castas paintings and discussion on Nuestros Ranchos Genealogy of Mexico website
- Safo, Nova. "Casta Paintings: Inventing Race Through Art/Mexican Art Genre Reveals 18th-Century Attitudes on Racial Mixing." The Tavis Smiley Show. June 30, 2004.
- Soong, Roland. Racial Classifications in Latin America. 1999.