Mestizo as a colonial-era category
Main article: Casta
From Spaniard and Indian woman, Mestiza. Miguel Cabrera
A casta painting by Miguel Cabrera, Here he shows a Spanish (español) father, Mestiza (mixed Spanish-Indian) mother, and their Castiza daughter.
Luis de Mena, Virgin of Guadalupe and castas, 1750. The top left grouping is of an indio and an española, with their mestizo son. This is the only known casta painting with the indio in the superior position.
Casta painting showing 16 hierarchically arranged, mixed-race groupings. The top left grouping uses cholo as a synonym for mestizo. Ignacio Maria Barreda, 1777. Real Academia Española de la Lengua, Madrid.
In the Spanish colonial period, the Spanish developed a complex set of racial terms and ways to describe difference. Although this has been conceived of as a "system," and often called the sistema de castas or sociedad de castas, archival research shows that racial labels were not fixed throughout a person's life. Artwork created mainly in eighteenth-century Mexico, "casta paintings," show groupings of racial types in hierarchical order, which has influenced the way that modern scholars have conceived of difference in Spanish America.[12]
There were three main categories of ethnicity during the initial period of colonization of the Americas by the Spanish: European white or Spaniard (español), Amerindian (indio), and African (negro). Throughout the territories of Spanish Empire in the Americas, ways of differentiating individuals in a racial hierarchy, often called in the modern era the sistema de castas or the sociedad de castas developed where society was divided based on color, calidad (status) and other factors. The main divisions were as follows:
Español (fem. española), i.e. Spaniard – person of Spanish or other European ancestry; a blanket term, subdivided into Peninsulares and Criollos
Peninsular – a European born in Spain who later settled in the Americas;
Criollo (fem. criolla) – a Spanish or other European descent born in the Americas;
Castizo (fem. castiza) – a person with primarily European and some Amerindian ancestry born into a mixed family; the offspring of a castizo and an español was considered español. Offspring of a castizo/a of an Español/a returned to Español/a.
Mestizo (fem. mestiza) – a person of extended mixed European and Amerindian ancestry;
Indio (fem. India) – a person of pure Amerindian ancestry;
Pardo (fem. parda) – a person of mixed White, Amerindian and African ancestry; sometimes a polite term for a black person;
Mulato (fem. mulata) – a person of mixed White, and African ancestry;
Zambo – a person of mixed African and Amerindian ancestry;
Negro (fem. negra) – a person of African descent, primarily former enslaved Africans and their descendants.
In theory, and as depicted in eighteenth-century Mexican casta paintings, español status could also be restored to the offspring of a Castizo/a [mixed Spanish - Mestizo] and an Españo
Main article: Casta
From Spaniard and Indian woman, Mestiza. Miguel Cabrera
A casta painting by Miguel Cabrera, Here he shows a Spanish (español) father, Mestiza (mixed Spanish-Indian) mother, and their Castiza daughter.
Luis de Mena, Virgin of Guadalupe and castas, 1750. The top left grouping is of an indio and an española, with their mestizo son. This is the only known casta painting with the indio in the superior position.
Casta painting showing 16 hierarchically arranged, mixed-race groupings. The top left grouping uses cholo as a synonym for mestizo. Ignacio Maria Barreda, 1777. Real Academia Española de la Lengua, Madrid.
In the Spanish colonial period, the Spanish developed a complex set of racial terms and ways to describe difference. Although this has been conceived of as a "system," and often called the sistema de castas or sociedad de castas, archival research shows that racial labels were not fixed throughout a person's life. Artwork created mainly in eighteenth-century Mexico, "casta paintings," show groupings of racial types in hierarchical order, which has influenced the way that modern scholars have conceived of difference in Spanish America.[12]
There were three main categories of ethnicity during the initial period of colonization of the Americas by the Spanish: European white or Spaniard (español), Amerindian (indio), and African (negro). Throughout the territories of Spanish Empire in the Americas, ways of differentiating individuals in a racial hierarchy, often called in the modern era the sistema de castas or the sociedad de castas developed where society was divided based on color, calidad (status) and other factors. The main divisions were as follows:
Español (fem. española), i.e. Spaniard – person of Spanish or other European ancestry; a blanket term, subdivided into Peninsulares and Criollos
Peninsular – a European born in Spain who later settled in the Americas;
Criollo (fem. criolla) – a Spanish or other European descent born in the Americas;
Castizo (fem. castiza) – a person with primarily European and some Amerindian ancestry born into a mixed family; the offspring of a castizo and an español was considered español. Offspring of a castizo/a of an Español/a returned to Español/a.
Mestizo (fem. mestiza) – a person of extended mixed European and Amerindian ancestry;
Indio (fem. India) – a person of pure Amerindian ancestry;
Pardo (fem. parda) – a person of mixed White, Amerindian and African ancestry; sometimes a polite term for a black person;
Mulato (fem. mulata) – a person of mixed White, and African ancestry;
Zambo – a person of mixed African and Amerindian ancestry;
Negro (fem. negra) – a person of African descent, primarily former enslaved Africans and their descendants.
In theory, and as depicted in eighteenth-century Mexican casta paintings, español status could also be restored to the offspring of a Castizo/a [mixed Spanish - Mestizo] and an Españo
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