The Caste System

Henry L’Esperance Alvarez

The Caste System

•  The Spanish instituted a caste system based on race, which dictated an individual’s relative importance.

•  If the native or the “casta,” of mixed

blood, spoke Spanish, he or she was considered superior to those who did not.

The Caste System in New Spain

Peninsular: Spanish

Criollo: Spanish descent born In America

Mestizo: offspring of Spanish & native

Indio: or native

Negro: of African Salve Descent

Mulato: offspring of Black & Spanish

The Peninsulares

•  The elite of society in the post-Conquest colony was made up of the more than two thousand Spaniards in Mexico in 1521

•  The peninsulares held the best positions in the civil and ecclesiastical hierarchies for much of the colonial periods.

The Criollos

•  Second level of colonial society was formed by those of Spanish blood born in Mexico. These criollos were by physical appearance indistinguishable from the peninsulares, but the mere fact of their New World birth was sufficient to prejudice their status.

•  Although, criollos were legally eligible to all offices, there is no question that they suffered discrimination.

Mestizos •  The majority of the mestizos could not aspire

to high status. A high percentage were illegitimate (not infrequently the result of rape) and the term mestizo was synonymous with bastard for most of the colonial period.

•  However, it is difficulty to generalize about their status, which varied according to time and place and was influenced by such factors as physical characteristics, gender, the ability to acquire skills or property, and cultural identity.

Indians •  In 1519 approximately twenty-five million lived

in Central Mexico alone. •  By 1625-1650 the population declined to one

million or less. •  Spanish considered the Indians simply

pagans, cannibals, and sodimites. Natives were frequently described as lazy, disposed to vices, devious, and backward.

•  Indians were forbidden to wear European clothing. (In some cases they were imposed a certain style of dress we still find in Bolivia today.

The Blacks •  At first most slaves were personal servants

imported by prominent men. •  Indian laborers, both slave and free, had

never been satisfactory in regimented labor, and it was commonly thought that one black could do the work of four Indians. And as a consequence of the declining Indian population, 120,000 or more slaves entered Mexico between 1519 and 1650.

•  But blacks were expensive, while natives cost little.

•  The caste system was a legal system imposed by the Spanish Crown within its empire. Within this system the purity of one’s blood (how white one was) determined the social standing one had in Spanish America. What impacts do you think that system has today?