Casta Paintings

Spanish American Colonies

Casta is a 17th century term used in Spanish America, and refers to the institutionalized

system of racial and social stratification and segregation based on a person's heritage.

• Certain labels were used to identify

classes of people with specific racial or

ethnic heritage. Each of these castes was

entitled to privileges or were restricted

within the society because of its caste.

El Mestiso

With Spanish and Native Parents

“The families are obviously upper class and cultured. As seems to be usual, the man is Spanish and the woman Native. While some Casta Paintings of Mestisos show a Native man and Spanish woman, the Mestiso paintings seem to be one of the few instances in which the gender of the Spanish partner is almost always male. This fairly stable combination of Spanish man, Native woman, and Mestiso child could be an echo of the myth of the Native woman Malinche and the Spanish Hernan Cortes. It could also be a recognition of a social reality, especially among the upper classes, in which men could afford to "marry down" while women could not. “

Compiled from The Construction and Depiction of Race in Colonial Mexico by Christa Johanna Olson.

The Spanish passed new laws to control

the Mestisos and create a niche for them.

That niche provided the Mestisos with

neither the legal protection afforded to

Natives, nor the rights given to Spaniards.

They were, however, free to work

wherever they chose and were exempt

from Native tribute payments.

El Mulatto

With African and Spanish Parents

Gender roles

• Social roles in this painting. The woman is clearly assigned to the domestic sphere. Her dress, comportment, and positioning connect her to the work of cleaning, cooking, and managing life inside the home. On the other hand, the man certainly does not belong in the kitchen, his place is in the public sphere. He appears to be just stopping in before continuing with his duties. While his clothing does not suggest wealth, he is well turned-out and seems to be a business man of some standing. We see clearly in this painting what was probably a common gender role assignment for merchant or working class families in colonial New Spain.

In many Casta Paintings that include a person of African descent, especially a woman, the family scene is one of conflict. There is a clear ethnic stereotype attributing chaos and violence to African heritage. Although "Pure-blooded" Spaniards thought of most castas as deviant, uncontrollable, and dangerous, they reserved a special distaste for people of African heritage. This strong prejudice could be the result of Spain's long struggle against the Moors of Northern Africa during the conquest and reconquest of Spain between 700 and 1492 CE or it could be linked to the slave trade. In Spain, having Moorish or Jewish blood prevented access to schools, religious fraternities, and public office. The Moors were seen as uncivilized, violent, and evil. This stereotype could easily have carried over into the New World. Also, and perhaps more likely, the assumption that people of African descent had been or were slaves probably added to the Spanish prejudice against people of African descent.

La Morisca

With Mulatto and Spanish Parents

El Lobo

With African and Native Parents

El lobo (the wolf) represented a particularly frightening possibility for the Spanish in New Spain. Many Spanish edicts of the time indicate a strong desire to keep the African and Native communities separate because the Spanish believed that the Africans would insight the Native peoples to revolt. The Spanish saw Africans as volatile and in need of control (their fears about African people were probably intensified by the half dozen slave revolts that took place between 1530 and 1620). They feared that a union between Africans and Natives (generally described as the Africans stirring up the otherwise docile Natives) could upset their control. A lobo child, born of one Native and one African parent, offered a concrete example of that potential political and social union. Perhaps the Spanish fear of an African-Native coalition had some influence in the application of "lobo" to children of such a union. The wolf has long been a symbol of danger, chaos, and destruction for Europeans. Though I know of no research making this specific link, the term obviously held derogatory force and certainly marked the person as having a strange and possibly dangerous ethno-racial heritage.

La Coyote

With Mestiso and Native Parents

• By law, Mestiza or casta women were not

allowed to dress in Nahua clothing except

when married to a Nahua man. This legal

requirement helped the Spanish rulers to

maintain a system of ethnoracial control

based largely on appearance.