論文

Family Formation in the Pigmentocracy:
The Guarding of Whiteness and the“Transgression”of Interracial
Relationships in Latin America and the
Caribbean
Midori KOMATSU HIDAKA

I. Introduction
Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is one of the most ethno-racially andculturally diverse regions of the world given its history of pre- colonial
indigenous groups, European colonization, the transatlantic African slave trade,
and immigrant communities that arrived in the past two centuries. However,
the ethno-racial composition in this region can vary greatly from country tocountry. This can be seen when comparing Haiti’s 95% black population with
Argentina’s 97% white and mixed European population. Other countries such as
Guyana and Suriname have a vastly diverse population of Hindustani or East
Indian, Maroon, Creole, and Javanese (The World Factbook).
Among all this diversity, two important points of convergence for most of thisregion is its history of extreme violence towards African and indigenous
peoples, and its ideologies of racial mixedness which obscure the existing raceand color inequalities. This goes against the myths of racial harmony that aresa id to homogenize the reg ion’s ethno -racia l identity. I n rea lity, racia ldiscrimination in LAC has been reconstructed into a particular social hierarchy
based on skin color also known as pigmentocracy. This concept was conceived
in 1944 by Chilean anthropologist Alejandro Lipschutz “to refer to inequalities
or hierarchies based on both ethnoracial categories, such as indigenous andblack, and a skin color continuum” (Telles and PERLA 2014). It was further
explored and developed by sociologist Edward Telles and the Project on
Ethnicity and Race in Latin America also known as PERLA. Their work
identified skin color as a major indicator of social inequalities in most of LAC as
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文

well as the importance of ethno-racial terminologies and methods in census
taking. In contrast to the United States, skin color is the main indicative of aperson’s ethno-racial background in Latin America and the Caribbean. Althoughrace and color may become interchangeable concepts, pigmentocracy better
addresses this region’s racial dynamics given the high rate of ethno-racial
mixture which in turn makes skin color a more appropriate measure of
discrimination and social inequalities (Telles and PERLA 2014).
Through the understanding of how pigmentocracies are structured we cansee there is an inconsistent paradigm between racial mixedness or mestizaje1 as
an identity project in LAC and the acceptance of interracial or intercolor unions.
A lt hough Telles a nd PER LA provide t he compa rat ive a nd conceptua lframeworks to understand these ethno-racial and color hierarchies, further
examination of the role of gender and sexuality in the pigmentocracy could
provide a more profound understanding on family formation. Previous casestudies on partner choice and parental pressure demonstrate there is a clear
preference for lighter skin color or whiteness. 2 Thus, an important aspect whichshows the existence of pigmentocracy whilst upholding narratives of mestizaje
and the myth of racial harmony is family formation.
C onsequent ly, t his a rt icle’s ma i n object ive is to quest ion how is t hepigmentocracy reproduced or “transgressed” within families and partner
preferences? To formulate an answer, the framework of pigmentocracy drawn
by Telles and PERLA will be used while emphasizing family formation as thestage for racial and color boundaries to exist starting from childhood, followedby the family’s influence on dating choices of young adults, and the racial bias inpartner attraction. Furthermore, this article will rely on previous studies
conducted in Cuba by cultural anthropologist Nadine Fernandez, and in Mexico
by sociologist Christina Sue regarding interracial relationships and race mixture
as cases of reproduction and transgressions of racial and color boundaries
entrenched by social hierarchies. Through the lens of these contemporary
1 “racial mixture; usually implies a mixed European and indigenous heritage; can also
refer to mixture of African with European and indigenous blood, although the latter is
not normally recognized”(Peloso 2014, 195).
2 “As in the United States and in many parts of the Western world, whiteness has long
represented modernity and progress for many Latin American nations. For individual
Latin Americans, it is used as a form of social capital that symbolizes and often entitles
its bearers to privilege and status” (Telles and Flores 2013, 411)78

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scholars of Latin America and the Caribbean, a comparative and criticalanalysis of two different ethno-racial and political settings will demonstrate thepoints of correlations and opposition when examining family formation. Thus,
this will highlight the importance of context and simultaneously point out what
are some of the standardized notions of pigmentocracy in LAC households.
In the first section of this article, the history of racial formation in Latin
America and the Caribbean will be explained beginning from European
colonization until today’s pigmentocracy. This historical perspective serves toreveal how racial mixedness and the myth of racial harmony are used to mask
the race and color hierarchy. After demystifying non-racism ideologies, we candeepen the conversation to analyze the private sphere. This analysis will
showcase how family formation and partner preference serve as a point ofreproduction or transgression of the pigmentocracy. Lastly, this article will
provide an insight as to why a gender perspective serves as an appropriate tool
to further examine the relationship between pigmentocracy and family
formation.

II. Racial Formation in Latin America and the Caribbean
Much of Latin American and Caribbean history tends to be explored fromthe arrival of European colonizers due to the historical and cultural destruction
inflicted on most of the indigenous population that had already been inhabiting
the region. Not long after the arrival of Columbus and other colonizers, a social
hierarchy was created through the enslavement of indigenous people andEurocentric imperialist ideals. Moreover, the ethno-cultural diversity of themany indigenous groups that resided in the Americas was diminished anderased by lumping them all together as one. Latin American historian Vincent
C. Peloso explains, “...the label ‘Indian’ swept all the island people (Caribbean)
into one basket with none of the distinctions of ethnic group or office or bloodthat ruled local culture before the invasions” (2014, 4). Soon after, diseases,
enslavement, and genocide significantly reduced the number of indigenous
groups with the surviving lot exploited for labor.
Around the 16th century, millions of enslaved Africans were introduced as
replacement labor due to the dying numbers of indigenous people. However,after the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) and its success as a black-led uprising, a
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domino effect of abolitionist movements began which brought the transatlantic
African slave trade to dwindle down. Consequently, European powers sought a
new form of labor force for their colonies. During the mid to late 180 0s,
indentured workers from Asia, mostly from India and China, were sent to LAC
and concentrated in the Caribbean colonies of British West Indies in what cameto be known as the coolie trade. Peloso describes the coolie trade as a tool for“Latin American countries to ease the transition from a slave labor economy to‘indentured’ labor that was a slave labor force in all but name” (2014, 118). The
coolie trade coming from China was finally banned around the 1870s whereas
Indian indentured migration took several more decades until its eradication(Look Lai 1993).
From Columbus arrival to the Americas in 1492 until the abolishment ofindentured labor in the early 1910s there was a continuous exploitation of
marginalized groups at the hands of European imperialist powers for centuries.
However, the reductionist history of LAC has neglected or even erased theindigenous, African, and Asian heritage existing in this region whereas Hispanic
or other Europeanisms are continuously elevated. This section will explain how
pigmentocracies or the ethno-racial color hierarchies were created in LAC and
to expose the prevalent myth of non-racism.
2.1. Mixedness as the norm
Racial mixedness during European colonialism in the Americas was marked
by sexual violence against indigenous and enslaved African women. In thecentral and southern regions of the “New World,” mixedness was also due themale-female ratio imbalance. During the early years of European colonization
many of the arrivals in LAC were men which differed from the English arrivals
in the north. “Spanish and Portuguese males, seeking to escape poverty inEurope, came to the New World in search of wealth; in contrast, the English
settlement of the United States tended to be more family oriented, beginningwith many families that were escaping religious persecution” (Telles and
PERLA 2014, 15). Although as the colonial settlements moved further inland
and the motivation and types of European movements to the Americas became
more varied, LAC had been continuously increasing their mixed-raced
population.
The resulting miscegenation also brought an unclear framework from the80

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oppressor’s perspective on how to regulate mixed societies. Sue explains, “tomaintain social order amid various degrees of mixture, colonial authorities
developed an elaborate caste system based on race, culture, and socioeconomic
status. In this system, Spaniards were positioned on top, followed by mixed-race
individuals, and then Indians and Africans” (2013, 11). Although many scholars
point out that social positioning was not as clearly standardized throughout theregion, the mestizo and mulatto3 population were considered as somewhere in
the middle as ambiguous and movable. However, “for those at the bottom of thepile, labelled indigenous and black (or worse, slave), there was less flexibility”(Wade 2010, 29).
Historian Carl Degler explains there were segregating laws enacted by thePortuguese in colonial Brazil, and free mulattos were treated different frommixed-race people with indigenous ancestry (1971, 213). Anthropologist Peter
Wade corroborates this by stating, “although both sets of people suffered great
hardship in practical terms, indigenous people were seen in some sense as
superior to blacks” (2010, 29). Even today, many LAC countries choose tohighlight their indigenous ancestry over their African heritage. In a recent
study, Telles and PERLA argued that “symbolically and perhaps politically...theindigenous seem to occupy a higher status than Afrodescendants, especially in
relation to nation-making narratives in the region” but indigenous groups also
“have the lowest socioeconomic status of all ethnoracial groups in Latin
America” (2014, 33). Thus, what has remained consistent since colonial times isthe placement of indigenous groups and African descendants at the bottom of
the hierarchy.
After the abolition of slavery, the influence of scientific racism and eugenics
during the late 1800s and early 1900s continued to perpetuate preferences forlighter skin and white European physical traits. Law professor Tanya K.
Hernandez explains, in contrast to American and European Mendel-esqueeugenics 4 , Latin America favored Lamarck’s theory which “viewed external
forces as influencing heredity so that characteristics an individual acquired in
3 “a person of European and African heritage”(Peloso 2014, 195).
4 Hernández states “in Europe and the United States, Gregor Mendel ’s 1866 bookPrinciples of Heredity was used to develop a theory for eugenics postulating thatsuccessful people had good genetics, while disadvantaged people and groups had bad
genetics, which no amount of social development could remedy so that the racial purityof good genes should be protected at all costs” (2013, 21).

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adapting to the environment could then be inherited by later generations” (2013,21). Many countries in LAC used Lamarck’s theory to tackle Eurocentric
perspectives which viewed the region as “primitive” because of the large
population of indigenous and African descendants. Hernández further explains,
Lamarck’s notion of genetic acquisition intuitively provided indirect support
for the mestizaje concept that interracial intimacy between a white person
and a black person would allow the resulting child to acquire whitenessand all the positive attributes socially associated with whiteness. With thisreasoning, over time the presumably “stronger” gene of whiteness would
predominate in the population and the numbers of blacks would decrease.
(21-22)To “modernize” their population, LAC governments welcomed European
migrants during the late 1800s and early 1900s. At the same time, laws
prohibiting the entrance of migrants of African ancestry and in some cases,
Asian migrants as well, were instituted in Costa Rica, Colombia, Mexico, Peru,
and Venezuela (Hernandez 2013, 27-28). As a result, countries such as Argentina
became successful in “whitening” their population through mass migration from
Europe to disproportionally decrease the number of darker skin individuals withvisible African ancestry (Hernandez 2013, 22). In most of LAC, these whitening
migration movements did not work to erase the large indigenous and black
population, but it did continue to set the tone on who is considered desirable andundesirable.
2.2. Mestizaje and its glorification
As an apparent counter argument to scientific racism, mestizaje which
generally refers to the majority mixed population in Latin America and the
Ca r ibbea n , a lso beca me a n ideolog ica l tool to u n ite a n et h no -racia l ly
heterogenous population. Mexican scholar, José Vasconcelos exalted mestizaje asa form of revolutionary anti-eugenics’ rhetoric during the 1920s. He was able to“institutionalize and widely disseminate his vision” due to his position as
Minister of Education (Sue 2013, 15). Even though mestizaje was a driving toolfor unity, it also held a preference for lighter skin mestizos, erasure of
Africanness, and denial of the diversity among indigenous communities. By
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claiming a racially homogenous mestizo identity, it only served to denymarginalized groups from the main scheme of national identity construction
throughout LAC. In Mexico and many parts of LAC, mestizaje ideologies may
have served as an important vehicle to accept race mixture, but it also brought
forth “the belief that the country is free of racism” (2013, 15). This thinking
expanded to other countries of LAC such as Brazil where the myth of racial
democracy was also promoted during the 1900s.
Racial democracy assumes that high rates of racial mixedness has thepotential to create post-racial or non-racist societies. This belief was developed
by Brazilian scholar Gilberto Freyre in the 1930s in which he argued, “Brazil
was unique among western societies for its smooth blending of European,
Indian, and African peoples and cultures. As a result, he claimed that Braziliansociety was free of the racism that affected the rest of the world” (Telles 2004).
Although, racial democracy as an ideology began in Brazil, the basis of themyth spread all throughout LAC to differentiate from the racial segregation
laws that were in place in the United States at the time. By creating thiscontrast with the US, Latin America and the Caribbean could mark itself as
racially “progressive” given the high rate of racial mixedness. However, racial
democracy only served to obscure the pigmentocracy that had been on themaking since the arrival of European invaders.
2.3. The public and private sphere of pigmentocracies
In overview, skin color is considered as part of the social construction of racein LAC. As it was previously explained, the reason why color became the main
criteria to designate the degree of a mixed-race individual belonging to a certain
racial category was because of the large-scale miscegenation that had been
occurring for several centuries. The white colonists had placed themselves at
the top and the remnants of this structuring are what we see in today’s
pigmentocracy which associates whiteness with modernization and superiority.
Today’s white elite in LAC continues to be the most benefited from this social
hierarchy in which their ethno-racial background and skin color as well as theirhigher social economic standing provides them with the power to perpetuatepigmentocratic thinking in society. By using the mestizaje ideology to create aunifying race-ethnicity-color national construction, the white elite has been able
to hide the pervasive social inequalities based on ethno-racial categorization and
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論文skin color.
Today, most of LAC places closeness to whiteness at the top whereas
closeness to black and indigenous ancestry at the bottom of the pigmentocracy.
There might be a few contrasting points between countries such as percentageof the population belonging to certain ethno-racial categories, the politicalcontext in which narratives of mestizaje and racial democracy have been
accepted, or the possible progression towards multicultural acknowledgement.
For example, Brazil has been able to start implementing policies such asaffirmative action to acknowledge racial and skin color discrimination, and tomove away from the myth of racial democracy. However, other countries suchas the Dominican Republic define their national identity away from their own
African heritage for the purpose of differentiating from its Haitian neighbors.
Therefore, current policies addressing ethno-racial and color inequalities as wellas national identity construction, deeply influence the varied ways in which
pigmentocracies are handled in LAC.
Although skin color and ethno-racial hierarchies are clearly present, theideologies of racial mixedness continue to be pervasively accepted by the public
to justify myths of racial harmony. This comes into even sharper contrast when
examining the private sphere. Family formation and partner preference in LAC
does not coincide with racial mixedness ideologies since whiteness continues tobe guarded and desired, whereas black and darker skin family members are
marginalized by their own kin. Thus, the pigmentocracy continues to be
reproduced at home in direct opposition to the supposed “racially progressiveness”
of mestizaje and racial democracy. In the next section we will examine how thisreproduction of pigmentocracy occurs at home, and the way interracial couples
navigate their defiance of racial and color boundaries.

III. Family Formation and Partner Choice in the Pigmentocracy
Interracial and intercolor unions are said to be at the core of Latin America
and the Caribbean’s (LAC) racial mixedness ideologies. And yet, families
continue to guard and desire whiteness, marginalize black and darker skinrelatives, and reject partners that do not fit into the whitening schemes. Due tothis, interracial couples find themselves in a peculiar arena of demonstrating
actual mestizaje whilst being subject of scrutiny by their families and other84

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Family Formation in the Pigmentocracy: The Guarding of Whiteness and the“Transgression”of Interracial Relationships in Latin America and the Caribbeansocia l circles . I n t his sect ion , t he ma in quest ion to a nswer is how t hepigmentocracy is reproduced at home through the racial and color boundaries
in which parents and other family members reinstate repeatedly. Manifestationsof these boundaries can be seen since early childhood and adolescence throughteasing, bullying, and parental control over the dating choices of the younger
members of the family. Consequently, this plays an important role in the child’sdevelopment by dictating who is considered an “appropriate” choice of partner
as well as creating internalized colorism among mixed-color families. The
overall family pressure stems from the potential reproduction of lighter or
darker skin children among the younger generations. This creates a cycle athome where the recreation of pigmentocracies begin with family guidance onchildren’s partner choice.
3.1.“Desde chiquito”
From a very young age, the pigmentocracy tends to be transferred throughthe affirmation of racial boundaries and attitudes towards marginalized ethnoracial groups. These boundaries are placed in the friendships children create atschool or in the neighborhood through the transmission of the parent’s orguardian’s own prejudice. Whether it comes in the form of teasing or dating
control, these techniques to reinstate racial boundaries have a lasting effect on
the child’s perspective of others. In Fernandez extensive research in Cuba, she
descr ibed how a blond f ive -yea r old wa s bei ng tea sed at home by h is
grandmother. The teasing stem from the boy becoming close with a black girlat school. The grandmother emphasized the girl’s skin color as being very dark,
but the boy refused to accept this depiction of her as black, and instead
protested she was white (2010, 149). This family dynamic shows how from sucha young age, children are directed to belief that creating a close relationshipoutside their own ethno-racial and skin color group is seen as transgressive
behavior. Therefore, children are being reoriented to comply with race and color
boundaries placed by the pigmentocracy.
Once these children become teenagers, they will begin to have their firstexperiences with dating and express a preference in partners. To maintain themestizaje narrative, partner choice is disguised as simple attraction and not asa conscious racial and color bias that has been instilled early on. However,commonly heard eugenic phrasings such as mejorando la raza or “bettering the85

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文race” conveys the erasure of African and indigenous ancestry while promoting
a whitening goal through the reproduction of lighter skin offspring. Sue explains,“the ‘bettering the race’ philosophy justifies the seeking out of lighter partner
while dodging a conflict with the mestizaje ideology (because it encourages
interracial relationships) and the nonracism ideology (because it is framed as
being motivated by an aesthetic-driven consideration of potential offspring)”(2013, 77). Myths of racial harmony or nonracism allows apparent individual
choice of att ract ion i nstead of att r ibut i ng et h no -racia l a nd sk i n color
discrimination as a possible motivation when it comes to seeking partners.
Colorist beauty standards among Latin American and Caribbean communities
support this by praising whiteness and European physical traits as attractive
whereas blackness, brownness, and African or indigenous physical traits as
undesirable. Evidence of this can be found in the common marketing ofwhitening skincare products as well as the portrayal of mostly light-skin Latin
American and Caribbean people in popular media. Thus, closeness to whitenessis publicly and privately seen as the staple of beauty in LAC which consequently
dictates who is considered a desirable partner.
The idealization of whiteness goes further than just partner preference, italso influences how darker skin children are treated in mixed-race families.
Many darker skin family members and relatives experience marginalization at
home. Sue interviewed an upper-class light-skinned woman in Mexico who
describes how her darker skin cousin had been teased and bullied by theirfamily. This instigated the cousin’s internalized colorism which drove her to feelthe need to “drink milk and put on powder, hoping to become white” (2013, 102).
Furthermore, there is a sharp contrast between lighter skin and darker skinchildren’s treatment in mixed-race families. Within the same household, darker
skin children witness how they are neglected whereas their light skin sibling or
relative is being given most of the attention and acclamation. The psychologicaltrauma black and darker skin children experience at home becomes detrimental
to the development of their identity and selfhood. This results in downplaying
and rejecting their own indigenous or African ancestry which was evident
when darker skin family members would state they wish they had been bornwith lighter skin (Sue 2013, 106).

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3.2. Guarding whiteness and dating control
Many young adults in LAC feel pressure from their parents or older family
members regarding their dating choices to maintain or “guard” whitenessamong light skin family members. The guarding of whiteness can be explained
through a gendered lens in which white women are deemed as needingprotection from black or brown men. In her extensive research on colonial
intimacies, anthropologist Ann Stoler explains how white women were subjectof scrutiny and policing when it came to interactions with native men of color.
“Although novels and memoirs position European women as categorically absent
from the sexual fantasies of European men, these very men imagined theirwomen to be desired and seductive figures to others. Within this frame,
European women needed protection from the ‘primitive’ sexual urges arousedby the sight of them” (2010, 58). Stoler continues explaining how in someinstances this “sexual threat” was labeled as the “Black Peril” in Africa and theBritish empire as “the professed dangers of sexual assault on white women by
black men” (2010, 58). Therefore, narratives that depicted colonized groups,
particularly Africans and Asians, as a danger to white female “purity” and atransgression to the preservation of whiteness has been a common theme inimperialist thinking.
This guarding of whiteness can be seen in the case of one of the interracial
couples Fernandez interviewed in Cuba. Irena and Luis who are white andblack respect ively, were pressured by I rena’s white fat her to end t herelationship. In the context of Cuba, socialism and egalitarianism was said totrump over racism since “racial distinctions no longer existed in revolutionary
Cuba” (Fernandez 2010, 18). Although a type of racial democracy or colorblindness was said to exist in the public sphere, the private realm of interracial
relationships between black and white Cubans were and continue to beconsidered as a form of defiance of racial and social boundaries. The father who
had been part of the egalitarian Cuban Revolution (1953-1959), threatened his
daughter’s boyfriend by pulling a gun on him. From the father’s perspective, “hehad given enough for this revolutionary project and he would not ‘sacrifice’ hiswhite daughter to the cause of racial equality” (163). Irena’s father saw his whitedaughter as someone that needed “protection” from a black man and allowing
her the freedom to enter an interracial or intercolor relationship would beconsidered “sacrificial” from the father’s perspective. Most of this control is
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論文rooted in the fear of reproducing darker skin children which in turn, would“taint” the whitening ideals the white family has been able to maintain bymarrying within the same ethno-racial and color group.
By contrast, Stoler also states that the “sexual abuse of black women was notclassified as rape and therefore was not legally actionable, nor did rapes
committed by white men lead to prosecution” (58). This shows the power
disparities that come with the intersections of gender and race. In many
European colonies, white women were being policed and blamed for enticing
native men whereas white men had the liberty to commit sexual violence andexploit native women. Through this frame, there’s a possibility that lighter skinmen in Latin America and the Caribbean have more liberty in choosing
partners for non-committed relationship regardless of ethno-racial or color
boundaries in contrast to lighter skin women. Moreover, the culture ofmachismo5 that plagues LAC excuses men’s promiscuity as a supposed sign ofhypermasculinity even when married or in a relationship. Fernandez explainsthat for white families, “while neighborly interracial interdependence andfriendships are common and fostered, sexual interracial encounters should be
more closely controlled—encouraged for white male pleasure, discouraged forserious relationships—and should be unthinkable for white women (particularly
middle-class women)” (2010, 150). Within this framework of race and machismo,
the white Cuban father felt it was his responsibility to control his daughter’s
dating choices.
Both Sue and Fernandez provided extensive insight on interracial dating in
Mexico and Cuba, but there was one contrasting case on parental control overtheir children’s dating choice. Fernandez interviewed Yanet and Victor, a younginterracial couple in Cuba who are white and black respectively. The couple had
experienced objection from Yanet’s grandparents, but not from her mother who
had divorced Yanet’s father and married a black man. Although Yanet’s motherexperienced the rejection from her own parents, she went on to have a childwith her new partner. The mother who was herself intermarried with a black
husband, was open for her daughter to also date outside her own ethno-racialand skin color group (Fernandez 2010, 153). It seems then, that if a parental
5

Machismo is the“supreme valuation of characteristics culturally associated with themasculine and a denigration of characteristics associated with the feminine”(Encyclopaedia Britannica).

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figure “transgresses” from the reproduction of pigmentocratic thinking at home,
it opens the door for other family members to also engage in interracial
relationships more freely.
On the other hand, Sue interviewed a light-brown Mexican woman named
Gloria who explained how her father had his first marriage with a black woman.
The intermarriage led to Gloria’s father becoming excluded from the rest of thefamily. After experiencing this ostracization, Gloria’s father began to think ofinterracial relationships as “aberrations” (2013, 93-94). Both cases provide areversal of parental behavior on interracial relationships. This could be due tothe different contexts of Mexico and Cuba, and the gender role disparities
between a mother and a father. Other unknown factors such as age and social
class could have also influenced these contrasting views. Although not muchinformation is provided about Yanet’s mother and Gloria’s father, they bothexperienced parental pressure from the older generation and had contradictory
results. The mother defied her parents and the existing racial hierarchy
whereas the father abided to the pigmentocracy and expressed disgust towards“transgressive” interracial relationships.
3.3. Symbolic escape from the pigmentocracy
While the top strata of the pigmentocracy tend to guard the social capital
whiteness provides, those near the bottom belief there’s a possibility to climb
the social ladder by intermarrying white or lighter skin partners. Degler’s
comparative study of Brazil and the United States pointed out that in Brazil “themulatto or mixed blood in general, occupies a special place, intermediate
between white and black; he is neither black nor white” (1971, 107). This goes incontrast with the US where the one-drop rule has been imposed to regard
blackness. Degler explains that in Brazil there is an “escape hatch” for mixedrace people of African descent which may not be an option in the US. (1971,
107). However, it has also been argued that Degler’s mulatto escape hatch paints
an incomplete picture of the struggles brown and mixed-race groups experiencesince it complies and supports the pigmentocracy by continuing to upholdwhiteness as the desirable goal or outcome of interracial families. Thus, themulatto escape hatch is more accurately described as a “symbolic escape.”
The symbolism of a “escape hatch” can also be applied to the spatial aspect.
There are neighborhoods or barrios throughout many cities in LAC that are
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文

populated by darker skin families with lower socioeconomic status and tend to
be labeled negatively as “bad areas.” This conflation of race, social status, andlocation leads to the racialized notion of neighborhoods. Fernandez interviewed
a young mulatto men named Javier who lived in a barrio in Cuba. Javier
described his discomforting interactions with his neighbors who saw him as“bourgeois or homosexual because he did not fit the local schema of malebehavior” (2010, 85). Since Javier enjoys spending time reading, he was seen as
deviating from the masculine scene of the barrio for which intellectual activity
was seen as unmanly given that the machismo culture existing in Javier’s
neighborhood defined male activities as spending time “outside” and “hanging
out in the street” (85). Whereas, staying indoors or having passive hobbies suchas reading was being associated with femininity and women’s gender role ofkeeping the home. Due to these experiences, Javier minimized interacting withhis largely black neighborhood, and chose to date lighter skin women as part ofhis “distancing strategy, as whitening had been a century earlier” (85). In thiscase, social mobility through interracial relationships was linked to escaping ageographic space associated with blackness and lower social status.
However, even if mulatto and darker skin individuals manage to symbolically“escape” the barrio by partnering with a white or lighter skin person, interracial
couples continue to be judged by friends and acquaintances. Throughout her
interviews, Sue described how friends of interracial couples questioned thereason behind their dating choices and rationalized it as a “status exchange” inwhich “the darker individual needs to somehow ‘compensate’ for his or her
darker skin tones” (2013, 89). This is often viewed through a gendered lens inwhich men are to provide good economic standing whereas women are
expected to present beauty ideals of whiteness. (Sue 2013, 90). This assumptionof “status exchange” could be due to phrasings such as “money whitens” whichhave been used in LAC to describe well to do darker skin persons that haveachieved success in their careers. By using this phrase, social class mobility
supposedly trumps over race and color inequalities which is untrue given thatupper-class dark skin Latinos still experience colorism and racism. An upperclass light skin mother interviewed in Mexico made it clear that “education andfamily background will go only so far ̶ no amount of money, status, or goodeducation would make it allowable for her daughter to date a black man” (Sue2013, 90). Thus, the idea that “money whitens” does not hold true given that90

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skin color discrimination still occurs regardless of socioeconomic status.
Although financial status may factor in partner choice, it is not relevant
enough to “whiten” nor overlook color disparities. In Cuba, Fernandez foundinterracial couples composed of darker skin men of lower socioeconomic status
than their lighter skin partner. Therefore, “money whitening” as a form of
status exchange does not always hold true, but it serves to describe how others
see interracial couples. Without “status exchange” or “money whitening,”families, friends, and the couple’s surrounding communities tend to have trouble
rationalizing the motivations for interracial relationships which emphasizes thestrict racial and color boundaries that have been embedded for many sincec h i ld ho o d . To b et t er u nder st a nd t he n at u re of i nt er r a c i a l u n io n s a s“tra nsg ressing” t he pig mentocracy, we must look t hrough a gendered
perspective.
3.4. Gender, skin color, and the“transgressions”of pigmentocracies
Among the color and gender variables of interracial relationships, both studies
in Cuba and Mexico showed dark skin men with light skin women as the mostcommon interracial pairing in comparison to dark skin women with light skinmen. Whether it is a symbolic form of “mulatto escape hatch” or “status
exchange,” this color and gender aspect remained constant. As Stoler’s analysis
on colonial intimacies explained, white European men exploited native women ofcolor which in turn could invoke images of brown and dark skin women as
sexua l objects a nd deny i ng t hem as ma r it a l or relat ionsh ip pa r t ners .
Furthermore, the racial “transgressions” that white or light-skin women
perform by dating and marrying black or dark skin men could also be a form ofdefiance against gendered dating control instituted by parents, particularly
fathers. This could also explain the previous case of Yanet’s mother and Gloria’s
father. Yanet’s mother was open for herself and her daughter to have formal
relationships with black men whereas Gloria’s father was against white-blackinterracial or intercolor dating for his daughter and even those around him.
As we have seen, skin color was an important factor that determined family
formation a nd partner choice, but it was limited to explain the root of“transgressive” behavior within interracial relationships. I argue that genderinequalities need to be included when analyzing the functions of pigmentocracies,
especially if we are addressing the private sphere of families and interracial
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文

unions. By expanding ethno-racial color hierarchies to include gender disparities
within it, there is a clearer pattern of interracial partner preference. The
machismo culture existing in these pigmentocracies creates racial and gendermotivations for lighter skin women and darker skin men to “transgress” social
norms. In the case of black and dark skin women, they are at a disadvantage as
one of the most marginalized groups since they do not hold the privilege ofrace/color as light skin women do, and they must adhere to patriarchal
subversions which dark skin men do not necessarily experience at the samerate as their female counterpart. Consequently, light skin men may believe they
have nothing to gain from contradicting the pigmentocracy which places themat the top.
Additionally, racial mixedness ideologies that are overly present in LAC
demonstrate how the reproduction of lighter skin children is at the core of
upholding pigmentocracies at home. As Wade stated, “mestizaje needs to beunderstood as a deeply gendered process” (2010, 94). Since the weight of
responsibility to have lighter skin children is placed on women regardless of
their own skin color, family formation in the pigmentocracy is undeniably agendered phenomenon of oppression. Even though interracial couples are said tobe “transgressing” the racial and color boundaries of the hierarchy, mothers arestill expected to pass down the lighter partner’s skin color to their children as amethod to “better the race.” Having a family history of interracial unions is notenough to go against colorist views which was evident among mixed-racefamilies that continue to exalt the pigmentocracy at home. A true form of“transgression” or defiance of the pigmentocracy would require allowing theirdaughters to date freely without racial or color lines, and to embrace theirdarker skin children with equal affection as their lighter skin counterparts. If
not, the pigmentocracy would continue to be reproduced at home regardless of
the interracial coupling.

IV. Conclusion
From the genocide and enslavement of indigenous and African groups, thepigmentocracies that exist all throughout Latin America and the Caribbean
have continued to perpetuate colonial remnants of skin color hierarchies. By
placing communities with mostly African and indigenous ancestry at the92

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bottom, it exemplifies how racism and colorism continue to be present evenamong the ethno-racially mixed region of LAC. Although whiteness may havebecome more of a symbolic capital due to the high rate of racial and cultural
mixedness, its value continues to influence the private sphere of family creation.
Furthermore, mestizaje ideologies claim racial mixedness as a staple of LAC’s
identity creation, and yet black-white or dark skin-light skin couples are judged
as “transgressive.” This reveals the contradictory nature of mixedness andidealized identity constructions that are based on whitening schemes which
continue to invalidate blackness and celebrate whiteness. In turn, the authoritythat families impose as to who they embrace or marginalize can have traumaticeffects on darker skin children that grow up believing their value derives fromskin color. These family structures are indicative of the pigmentocracy being
upheld at home.
The cases in Cuba and Mexico demonstrated how interracial couples are
scrutinized and become targets of discrimination at home and in theircommunities due to the “transgression” of social boundaries stemming from thepigmentocracy. Much of this objection against interracial relations is directly
linked to the reproductive possibility of lighter or darker skin children. Women’s
dating practices becomes a “transgression” when they form relationships withblack or darker skin men. Although lighter skin men are also pressured by thefamily to not date outside their racial and color boundaries, darker skin womenin these interracial relationships are expected to reproduce the lighter parent’s
color or to “better the race”. Therefore, the way racial and color boundaries areupheld at home is fundamentally through a gendered perspective given that thepressure falls on women to be able to reproduce lighter skin offspring. Genderholds an imperative relation in the structuring of social hierarchies in Latin
America and the Caribbean, thus the expansion of pigmentocracies to go
beyond ethno-racial and skin color ideologies is necessary to demonstrate
relevant aspects of social inequalities that transpire in the private sphere.
Just like a gender perspective can be incredibly insightful in understanding
how pigmentocracies occur through family formation, future research projects
could tackle other themes regarding sexual orientation or contemporary
migrants which could contribute to a more nuanced understanding on how thissocial hierarchy is reproduced and transgressed in different yet connected
paradigms. This research relied on the ethno-racial mixedness of African,
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Indigenous, and European heteronormativity, but the inclusion of same-sex
couples as well as emerging ethno-racial groups such as Asian Latin Americans
may provide a more elaborate understanding on the diversity of developmentsin the private sphere in Latin America and the Caribbean.

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References:
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Fernandez, Nadine T. 2010. Revolutionizing Romance: Interracial Couples in Contemporary
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Abstract

Family Formation in the Pigmentocracy:
The Guarding of Whiteness and the“Transgression”of Interracial
Relationships in Latin America and the
Caribbean
Midori KOMATSU HIDAKA

Ideologies of racial mixedness has been the enduring mask of racial harmonyin Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) since the 1920s. These ideologies
were conceived to unite an ethno-racially diverse population into a homogenous
identity that proclaimed the racial and cultural mixture of European, indigenous,
and African ancestry as the creolized trifecta composing the population of LAC.
Mixedness was also exalted as the solution to racism and the creation of nonracist societies while concealing ethno-racial and skin color discrimination ofindigenous and Afro-descendant communities. Contemporary studies on ethnoracial inequalities point to skin color as the major indicator of discrimination in
LAC which brought the conceptualization of race and color hierarchies also
known as pigmentocracies. In this hierarchy the top is deemed in closeness towhiteness while the bottom in closeness to blackness. Those at the bottom may
consider interracial relationships as a tool for social mobility whereas those at
the top implement their own strategies to guard their position as well as theirchildren. This article seeks to understand how pigmentocracies are reproduced
and transgressed in the private sphere. The guarding of whiteness amonglighter skin families and the marginalization of darker skin relatives in mixedrace families are some of the ways the pigmentocracy continues to be upheld at
home. These examples of reproduction of pigmentocracy are also contrasted
with the paradoxical position of interracial couples as “transgressions” of the
racial hierarchy whilst being proclaimed as the backbone of mixedness
ideologies. Ultimately, I argue that the most critical factor that influences family
formation and partner preference in the pigmentocracy is the reproduction of
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darker or lighter skin children. In turn, a gendered lens proves to be an
insightful tool to understand family formation in the pigmentocracy.

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