Casta (Spanish: [ˈkasta]) is a term meaning lineage or race in Spanish and Portuguese. The term has historically been used as a racial and social identifier for mixed-race offspring in the colonial Spanish Empire in the Americas. The Spanish crown created a basic legal division between Hispanic society (República de Españoles) and Indigenous peoples (República de Indios). In the Hispanic sector were Spaniards, "Indians", Black Africans, and mixed-race castas. ^{[1] [2]} Many scholars have examined whether there was a rigid, racially-based, social hierarchy in Spanish America ^{[3] [4]} Although a strict racial hierarchy is depicted in 18th century "casta paintings," done by Spanish American and Iberian painters, with fixed categories in rank order, extensive archival research does not support the artists' imagined fixity and rigidity of a highly ordered racial system. ^[5] With the encounter in the New World between European Spaniards, enslaved Africans ( negros) forcibly brought by Spaniards, and indigenous people (indios), sexual unions produced offspring that colonial officials classified in newly created legal racial categories. Mixed-race categories that appeared in official Spanish documentation were mestizo, generally offspring of a Spanish man and an Indigenous woman; and mulatto, offspring of a Spanish man and an African woman. Many other terms are found casta paintings, for people with variously mixed Spanish, Indigenous, and African ancestry; however, except for official categories of mestizo and mulatto, the plethora of other terms are not known to have been widely used officially or unofficially in the Spanish Empire.

Etymology

Casta is an Iberian word (existing in Spanish, Portuguese and other Iberian languages since the Middle Ages), meaning race, ' lineage', or breed. It is documented in Spanish since 1417 and is linked to the Proto-Indo-European ger.^{[ citation needed]} For the term in Spanish for Spanish America, the Oxford English Dictionary states it "applies to the several mixed breeds [sic] between Europeans, Indians, and Negroes". ^[6] The Portuguese casta gave rise to the English word caste during the early modern period, which was applied to the rigid social hierarchy in India. ^{[7] [8]} However, the system of racial hierarchy in India, the caste system, differs significantly from the more fluid, multiracial situation in colonial Spanish America.

Historical use of casta terminology

In the 1774 account of Spanish nobleman of his visit to colonial Mexico, Pedro Alonso O'Crouley, Idea compendiosa del Reyno de Nueva España, he devotes a chapter to "Racial Mixtures". His account includes images of race mixture, typical of the genre of casta paintings in 18th century Mexico, but his account does not include the term casta itself. "At the time of the conquest, only Indians of unmixed blood were known to inhabit New Spain. The Spaniards associated with them, as also did the Negroes after a little while. Human weakness brought about the indistinct combination, the mixture of bloods and multiplication of races, that even to the present day has produced in the commingling of the three stocks and their descendants a number of other common mixtures." ^[9]

A large inventory of racial terms is found in the 18th century genre of casta painting, where individuals representing different racial types are explicitly labeled by the elite artists creating the works for elite viewers.

"Purity of blood" and racial classification

The idea of race has been linked to the Spanish concept of "purity of blood", limpieza de sangre, developed in Christian Spain for those without recent Jewish or Muslim ancestry. It was directly linked to religion and notions of legitimacy, lineage and honor following Christian Spaniards' reconquest of Islamic territory, completed in 1492. The degree to which it can be considered a precursor to the modern concept of race has been the subject of academic debate. ^[10] The Spanish crown allowed only those Spaniards who could prove pure Christian ancestry without the "stain" of Jewish and Moorish blood to emigrate to Spanish America. This prohibition was frequently ignored and a number of Spanish conquistadors were Jewish Conversos. Others, such as Juan Valiente, were Black Africans or had recent Moorish ancestry.

Both in Spain and in the New World Conversos who continued to practice Judaism in secret were aggressively prosecuted. Of the roughly 40 people executed by the Spanish Inquisition in Mexico, a significant number were convicted of being "Judaizers" (judaizantes). ^[11] Spanish Conquistador Luis de Carvajal y de la Cueva was prosecuted by the Inquisition for secretly practising Judaism and eventually died in prison. Indigenous peoples were exempt from prosecution by the Inquisition, since they were deemed permanent neophytes.

In Spanish America, the idea of purity of blood also applied to Black Africans and indigenous peoples since, as Spaniards of Moorish and Jewish descent, they had not been Christian for various generations and were inherently suspect of engaging in religious heresy. In all Spanish territories, including Spain itself, evidence of lack of purity of blood had consequences for eligibility for office, entrance into the priesthood, and emigration to Spain's overseas territories. Having to produce genealogical records to prove one's pure ancestry gave rise to a trade in the creation of false genealogies, a practice which was already widespread in Spain itself. ^[12]

This was no impediment for intermarriage between Spaniards and indigenous people, just as it had not been between Old and New Christians or different racial groups coexisting in late medieval and early modern Spain. The result was generations of mixed-race children who were typically considered Spaniards, and many of whom returned to Spain to join the ranks of the nobility, a notable example being Juan Cano Moctezuma.

However, starting in the late 16th century, some investigations of ancestry classified as "stains" any connection with Black Africans ("negros", which resulted in "mulatos") and sometimes mixtures with indigenous that produced Mestizos. ^[13] While some illustrations from the period show men of African descent dressed in fashionable clothing and as aristocrats in upper-class surroundings, the idea that any hint of black ancestry was a stain developed by the end of the colonial period, a time in which biological racism began to emerge throughout the western world. This trend was illustrated in 18th-century paintings of racial hierarchy, known as casta paintings which led to 20th-century emergence of theories on a "Caste System" existing in Colonial Spanish America.

The idea in New Spain that native or "Indian" (indio) blood in a lineage was an impurity may well have come about as the optimism of the early Franciscans faded about creating Indian priests trained at the Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco, which ceased that function in the mid-16th century. The Indian nobility, which was recognized by the Spanish crown, had declined in importance, and there were fewer formal marriages between Spaniards and indigenous women than during the early decades of the colonial era. ^[13] In the 17th century in New Spain, the ideas of purity of blood became associated with "Spanishness and whiteness, but it came to work together with socio-economic categories", such that a lineage with someone engaged in work with their hands was tainted by that connection. ^[14]

Indians in Central Mexico were affected by ideas of purity of blood from the other side. Crown decrees on purity of blood were affirmed by indigenous communities, which barred Indians from holding office who had any non-Indians (Spaniards and/or Black peoples) in their lineage. In indigenous communities "local caciques [rulers] and principales were granted a set of privileges and rights on the basis of their pre-Hispanic noble bloodlines and acceptance of the Catholic faith." ^[15] Indigenous nobles submitted proofs (probanzas) of their purity of blood to affirm their rights and privileges that were extended to themselves and their communities. This supported the república de indios, a legal division of society that separated indigenous from non-Indians (república de españoles). ^[16]

Casta classifications and legal consequences

During the colonial period, there were a series of crown acts that codified the legal differences between Spaniards, Blacks, Indians, and mixed-race castas. The basic division was between the Republic of Spaniards (European whites, Blacks, and mixed-race castas, such as mestizos (white + Indian) and mulattoes (white + Black), and the Republic of Indians. Spaniards broguth enslaved Blacks during the conquest era. A free black population emerged during the later colonial period, particularly in urban areas. The crown considered Indians as free vassals and forbade the enslavement of Indians, except for acts of war or rebellion. They were, however, subject to forced labor, especially during the early period of Spanish settlement when the encomienda, (rewards of indigenous labor given generally to conquerors and their descendants) was in existence.

Although intermarriage was widespread from the beginning of the colonial period, mestizos only slowly began to be recognized as a distinct category. The category was often associated with illegitimacy but where the offspring was recognized by Spanish parents, they were accepted as Spaniards, and, as such, did not appear in official records as anything else. ^[17] In other cases, mestizo offspring were brought up in the Republic of Indians, as members of indigenous communities. In some indigenous communities, these individuals faced opposition for official leadership positions because of their mixed-race ancestry.

In the population at large, access to social privileges and even at times a person's perceived and accepted racial classification, were predominantly determined by that person's socioeconomic standing in society. ^{[18] [19]} General racial groupings had their own set of privileges and restrictions, both legal and customary. For example, only Spaniards and indigenous people, who were deemed to be the original societies of the Spanish dominions, had recognized ranks of nobility. ^[20] A more salient reason for the expansion of the category of noble to Indian elites was that they served as intermediaries between their communities and royal government. ^{[21] [22]}

Official censuses and ecclesiastical records noted an individual's racial category, so that these sources can be used to chart socio-economic standards, residence patterns, and other important data. Parish registers, where baptism, marriage, and burial were recorded, had three basic categories: español (Spaniards), indio, and color quebrado ("broken color", indicating a mixed-race person). In some parishes in colonial Mexico, indios were recorded with other non-Spaniards in the color quebrado register. ^[23] Long lists of different terms found in casta paintings do not appear in official documentation or anywhere outside these paintings. Only counts of Spaniards, mestizos, black peoples and mulattoes, and indigenes (indios), were recorded in censuses. ^[24]

Starting in the 16th c. edicts began codifying status by race, which became increasingly restrictive, in theory, until the end of crown rule in Spanish America in the early nineteenth century. Shifting one's category, could have personal benefits. For example, both mestizos and Spaniards were exempt from tribute obligations, but were both subject to the Inquisition. Indios, on the other hand, paid tribute yet were exempt from the Inquisition. In certain cases, a mestizo might try to " pass" as an indio to escape the Inquisition. An indio might try to pass as a Mestizo to escape tribute obligations. ^[25] A sampling of regulations include: 1514 Indians are allowed to marry Spaniards; 1530 Indians with more than one wife must live with the first or be punished; the 1549 restriction on mulattoes, mestizos, and those of illegitimate birth from holding encomiendas or royal offices; 1552 prohibition against Blacks carrying weapons; 1554 crown recognition of necessity to house and educate mestizos and mestizas; 1561 Blacks are encouraged to marry other Blacks; 1572 legitimate children of free enslaved Blacks and Indian women required to pay tribute; 1587 non-Indians (Spaniards, Blacks, mestizos, and mulattoes) forbidden from living in indigenous communities; 1588 permission for mestizos of legitimate birth to be ordained as priests; and 1599 mestizos prohibited from becoming official notaries. ^[26] In 1569, when the formal tribunal of the Inquisition was established in Mexico City, indigenous peoples were removed from its jurisdiction. ^[27] In 1688, Bishop Juan de Palafox y Mendoza drafted new regulations for entry to the Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico, (under jurisdiction of the Catholic Church) barring Blacks and mulattoes. ^[28]

In late 18th c., when the crown established a standing military, it excluded indigenous men from being conscripted. To make military service prestigious, the crown created a privileged status, the fuero militar, the first time non-whites were eligible for such a privilege. ^[29] In 1776 under the Bourbon monarchy, the crown issued the Royal Pragmatic on Marriage, taking approval of marriages away from the couple and placing it in their parents' hands, as a measure to prevent "unequal" unions. ^[30] The marriage between Luisa de Abrego, a free black domestic servant from Seville and Miguel Rodríguez, a white Segovian conquistador in 1565 in St. Augustine (Spanish Florida), is the first known and recorded Christian marriage anywhere in the continental United States. ^[31]

Race and Casta paintings

In the 18th century, "casta paintings" were created by American-born and Iberian Spaniards showing a fixed racial hierarchy. Scholars now contend that this genre may well have been elites' attempt to bring order into a situation that was more fluid. "For colonial elites, casta paintings might well have been an attempt to fix in place rigid divisions based on race, even as they were disappearing in social reality." ^[32] A 2018 textbook on colonial Latin America, states that casta paintings are "mistakenly viewed as depicting a rigid caste system, the paintings in fact did almost the opposite. No such system existed; the paintings were an expression of wishful thinking of the elite." ^[33]

For approximately a century, casta paintings were created by elite artists for an elite viewership. They ceased to be produced following Mexico's independence in 1821, when legal casta designations were abolished. The vast majority of casta paintings were produced in Mexico, by a variety of artists, with a single group of canvases clearly identified for 18th-century Peru. In the colonial era, artists primarily created religious art and portraits, but in the 18th century, casta paintings emerged as a completely secular genre of art. An exception to that is the painting by Luis de Mena, a single canvas that has the central figure of the Virgin of Guadalupe and a set of casta groupings. ^[34] Most sets of casta paintings have 16 separate canvases, but a few, such as Mena's, Ignacio María Barreda, and the anonymous painting in the Museo de Virreinato in Tepozotlan, Mexico, are frequently reproduced as examples of the genre, likely because their composition gives a single, tidy image of the racial classification (from the elite viewpoint).

It is unclear why casta paintings emerged as a genre, why they became such a popular genre of artwork, who commissioned them, and who collected them. One scholar suggests they can be seen as "proud renditions of the local," ^[35] at a point when American-born Spaniards began forming a clearer identification with their place of birth rather than metropolitan Spain. ^[36] The single-canvas casta artwork could well have been as a curiosity or souvenir for Spaniards to take home to Spain; two frequently reproduced casta paintings are Mena's and Barreda's, both of which are in Madrid museums. ^[37] There is only one set of casta paintings definitively done in Peru, commissioned by Viceroy Manuel Amat y Junyent (1770), and sent to Spain for the Cabinet of Natural History of the Prince of Asturias. ^[38]

The influence of the European Enlightenment on the Spanish empire led to an interest in organizing knowledge and scientific description might have resulted in the commission of many series of pictures that document the racial combinations that existed in Spanish territories in the Americas. 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. It must be emphasized that these paintings reflected the views of the economically established Criollo society and officialdom, but not all Criollos were pleased with casta paintings. One remarked that they show "what harms us, not what benefits us, what dishonors us, not what ennobles us." ^[39] Many paintings are in Spain in major museums, but many remain in private collections in Mexico, perhaps commissioned and kept because they show the character of late colonial Mexico and a source of pride. ^[40]

Some of the finer sets were done by prominent Mexican artists, such as José de Alcíbar, Miguel Cabrera, José de Ibarra, José Joaquín Magón, (who painted two sets); Juan Patricio Morlete Ruiz, José de Páez, and Juan Rodríguez Juárez. One of Magón's sets includes descriptions of the "character and moral standing" of his subjects. These artists worked together in the painting guilds of New Spain. They were important transitional artists in 18th-century casta painting. At least one Spaniard, Francisco Clapera, also contributed to the casta genre. In general, little is known of most artists who did sign their work; most casta paintings are unsigned.

Certain authors have interpreted the overall theme of these paintings as representing the "supremacy of the Spaniards", the possibility that mixtures of Spaniards and Spanish-Indian offspring could return to the status of Spaniards through marriage to Spaniards over generations, what can be considered "restoration of racial purity," ^[41] or "racial mending" ^[42] was seen visually in many sets of casta paintings. It was also articulated by a visitor to Mexico, Don Pedro Alonso O'Crouley, in 1774. "If the mixed-blood is the offspring of a Spaniard and an Indian, the stigma [of race mixture] disappears at the third step in descent because it is held as systematic that a Spaniard and an Indian produce a mestizo; a mestizo and a Spaniard, a castizo; and a castizo and a Spaniard, a Spaniard. The admixture of Indian blood should not indeed be regarded as a blemish, since the provisions of law give the Indian all that he could wish for, and Philip II granted to mestizos the privilege of becoming priests. On this consideration is based the common estimation of descent from a union of Indian and European or creole Spaniard." ^[43]

O'Crouley says that the same process of restoration of racial purity does not occur over generations for European-African offspring marrying whites. “From the union of a Spaniard and a Negro the mixed-blood retains the stigma for generations without losing the original quality of a mulato." ^[44] Casta paintings show increasing whitening over generations with the mixes of Spaniards and Africans. The sequence is the offspring of a Spaniard + Negra, Mulatto; Spaniard with a Mulatta, Morisco; Spaniard with a Morisca, Albino (a racial category, derived from Alba, "white"); Spaniard with an Albina, Torna atrás, or "throw back" black. Negro, Mulatto, and Morisco were labels found in colonial-era documentation, but Albino and Torna atrás exist only as fairly standard categories in casta paintings.

In contrast, mixtures with Black people, 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 ("floating in midair") and no te entiendo ("I don't understand you")—and others based on terms used for animals: coyote and lobo (wolf). ^{[45] [46]}

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 malleable nature of racial identity in colonial, Spanish American society. ^[47]

Some paintings depicted the supposed "innate" character and quality of people because of their birth and ethnic origin. For example, according to one painting by José Joaquín Magón, a mestizo (mixed Indian + Spanish) was considered generally humble, tranquil, and straightforward; while another painting claims "from Lobo and Indian woman is born the Cambujo, one usually slow, lazy, and cumbersome." Ultimately, the casta paintings are reminders of the colonial biases in modern human history that linked a caste/ethnic society based on descent, skin color, social status, and one's birth. ^{[48] [49]}

Often, casta paintings depicted commodity items from Spanish America such as pulque, the fermented alcohol drink of the lower classes. Painters depicted interpretations of pulque that were attributed to specific castas.

The Indias in casta paintings are shown as partners to Spaniards, Black people, and castas, and thus part of Hispanic society. But in a number of casta paintings, they are also shown separate from "civilized society," such as Miguel Cabrera's Indios Gentiles, or indios bárbaros or Chichimecas barely clothed indigenous in a wild, setting. ^[50] In the single-canvas casta painting by José María Barreda, there are a canonical 16 casta groupings and then in a separate cell below are "Mecos". Although the so-called "barbarian Indians" (indios bárbaros) were fierce warriors on horseback, indios in casta paintings are not shown as bellicose, but as weak, a trope that developed in the colonial era. ^[51] A casta painting by Luis de Mena that is often reproduced as an example of the genre shows an unusual couple with a pale, well-dressed Spanish woman paired with a nearly naked indio, producing a Mestizo offspring. "The aberrant combination not only mocks social protocol but also seems to underscore the very artificiality of a casta system that pretends to circumscribe social fluidity and economic mobility." ^[52] The image "would have seemed frankly bizarre and offensive by eighteenth-century Creole elites, if taken literally", but if the pair were considered allegorical figures, the Spanish woman represents "Europe" and the indio "America." ^[53] The image "functions as an allegory for the 'civilizing' and Christianizing process." ^[54]

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.

Casta paintings

• 
  De español e india, produce mestizo (From a Spanish man and an indigenous woman, a Mestizo is produced).
• 
  Spaniard + Negra, Mulatto. Miguel Cabrera.
• 
  José Joaquín Magón, IV. Spaniard + Negra = Mulata. "The pride and sharp wits of the Mulata are instilled in her white father and black mother"
• 
  De español y mulata, morisca. Miguel Cabrera, 1763, oil on canvas, 136x105 cm, private collection.
• 
  De español, Alvina, Torna atrás. Juan Patricio Morlete Ruiz (1701-1770)
• 
  Spaniard and Torna atrás, Tente en el aire. Miguel Cabrera.
• 
  De Albina y Español, Torna atrás. Attributed to Juan Patricio Morlete Ruiz.
• 
  De mestizo e india, sale coiote (From a Mestizo man and an indigenous woman, a Cholo is begotten).
• 
  Canbujo con Yndia sale Albaracado / Notentiendo con Yndia sale China, óleo sobre lienzo, 222 x 109 cm, Madrid, Museo de América
• 
  De Mestizo y Albarazada, Barsina. Anon. 18th c.
• 
  De Chino y Mulata, Alvarazada. Anon. 18th c.
• 
  De Chino, e India. Genizara. "From Indigenous and African Mixed father, and Indigenous mother. Genizara." by Francisco Clapera

Scholarly literature

In the scholarly literature, how racial distinction, hierarchy, and social status functioned over time in early Spanish America has been an evolving and contested discussion. ^{[59] [60]} In a 1977 article, anthropologist John K. Chance and historian William B. Taylor, discuss the "sistema de castas", describing it as "a cognitive and legal system of hierarchically arranged socioracial statutes created by Spanish law and the colonial elite in response to the growth of the miscegenated population in the colonies." ^[61] Although the concepts of sistema de castas (system of castes) or sociedad de castas ("society of castes") have been utilized in historical analyses to describe the social hierarchy based on race, with Spaniards at the apex, archival research shows that there is not a rigid "system" with fixed places for individuals and that plebeians contested their situation. ^{[62] [63]} Mexican historian Pilar Gonzalbo dismisses the idea of the existence of a "caste system" or a "caste society" in New Spain, understood as a "social organization based on the race and supported by coercive power". ^[25] Berta Ares's 2015 study of the Viceroyalty of Peru, notes that the term "casta" was barely used by colonial authorities which, according to her, casts doubt on the existence of a "caste system". Even by the 18th century, its use was rare and appeared in its plural form, "castas", characterized by its ambiguous meaning. The word did not specifically refer to sectors of the population who were of mixed race, but also included both Spaniards and indigenous people of lower socio-economic extraction, often used together with other terms such as plebe, vulgo, naciones, clases, calidades, otras gentes, etc. ^[64]

The findings recent scholarship have appeared in works for the general reader. A 1996 encyclopedia article summarizes research on caste and class structure, noting that while some scholars had focused on casta paintings as a depiction of a fixed, hierarchical system, other scholars have shown how restrictions were overcome. "A humble origin could be overcome by reputation and wealth." ^[65] A standard textbook on colonial Latin America states that there was no "rigid and racist 'caste system'", but by 1700 that socioracial "qualities" (calidad) of "ancestry, skin color and physical features, occupation, wealth, degree of Hispanization, public reputation and honor" could be "bent". ^[66]

During the conquest era, the names of some Black participants have been recorded, including Juan Valiente and Juan Garrido. ^{[67] [68]} The Royal Decree of Philip II in 1559 prescribes that "the mestizos who come to these kingdoms [in Spain] to study, or for other things of their use (...) do not need another license to return [to the New World]." ^[69] Passage from Spain to the New World required travellers to obtain a license from the Casa de Contratación, certifying the individual had no Jewish or Islamic ancestry. This edict indicates that mestizos could return without further examination.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Casta paintings.

• Caste system
• Castizo
• Dominant minority
• Filipino Mestizos
• Mestizaje
• Mexican art
• Ordenanzas del Baratillo de México
• Race and ethnicity in Latin America
• La Raza
• Zambo

References

Further reading

Race and race mixture

Casta painting

External links

Look up casta in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• "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.