page_title: Casta
hierarchical_section_title: Casta
caption_attribution_description: English: Casta painting containing complete set of 16 casta combinations (racial classifications in Spanish colonies in the Americas). Oil on canvas, 148 cm x 104 cm (58 1/4 inches x 40 15/16 inches). Español: Pintura de castas con todas las 16 combinaciones. 1. Español con India, Mestizo 2. Mestizo con Española, Castizo 3. Castizo con Española, Español 4. Español con Mora, Mulato 5. Mulato con Española, Morisca 6. Morisco con Española, Chino 7. Chino con India, Salta atrás 8. Salta atras con Mulata, Lobo 9. Lobo con China, Gíbaro (Jíbaro) 10. Gíbaro con Mulata, Albarazado 11. Albarazado con Negra, Cambujo 12. Cambujo con India, Sambiaga (Zambiaga) 13. Sambiago con Loba, Calpamulato 14. Calpamulto con Cambuja, Tente en el aire 15. Tente en el aire con Mulata, No te entiendo 16. No te entiendo con India, Torna atrás
context_page_description: Casta is a term which means "lineage" in Spanish and has been interpreted by certain historians during the 20th century to describe mixed-race individuals in Spanish America, resulting from unions of Spaniards, Amerindians, and Africans. Basic mixed-race categories that appeared in official colonial documentation were Mestizo, generally offspring of a Spaniard and an indigenous person; Mulatto, offspring of a Spaniard and a black African. There were a plethora of terms for mixed-race persons of indigenous and African ancestry used in 18th century Casta Paintings yet never being used officially in the Spanish Empire.
  The degree to which racial category labels had legal and social consequences has been subject to academic debate since the idea of a "Caste System" was first developed by Ángel Rosenblat and Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrán in the 1940s. Both historians popularized the notion that racial status was a key organizing principle of Spanish colonial rule. However, recent academic studies have widely challenged this notion, considering it a flawed an ideologically-based reinterpretations of the colonial period.
context_section_description: Casta (Spanish: [ˈkasta]) is a term which means "lineage" in Spanish and has been interpreted by certain historians during the 20th century to describe mixed-race individuals in Spanish America, resulting from unions of Spaniards (españoles), Amerindians (Indios), and Africans (Negros). Basic mixed-race categories that appeared in official colonial documentation were Mestizo, generally offspring of a Spaniard and an indigenous person; Mulatto, offspring of a Spaniard and a black African. There were a plethora of terms for mixed-race persons of indigenous and African ancestry used in 18th century Casta Paintings yet never being used officially in the Spanish Empire.
  The degree to which racial category labels had legal and social consequences has been subject to academic debate since  the idea of a "Caste System" was first developed by Ángel Rosenblat and Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrán in the 1940s. Both historians popularized the notion that racial status was a key organizing principle of Spanish colonial rule. However, recent academic studies have widely challenged this notion, considering it a flawed an ideologically-based reinterpretations of the colonial period. 
  Pilar Gonzalbo, in her study La trampa de las castas (2013) discards 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". Joanne Rappaport, in her book on colonial New Granada, rejects the caste system as an interpretative framework for that time, discussing both the legitimacy of a model valid for the entire colonial world and the usual association between "caste" and "race".
  Similarly, Berta Ares' 2015 study on the topic in the case of the Viceroyalty of Peru, notes that the term "Casta" is barely used by colonial authorities which, according to her, casts doubt on the idea of the existence of a "Caste System". Even by the 18th century its use would be rare and appear in its plural form "castas", characterized by its ambiguous meaning. The word did not specifically refer to sectors of the population who were mixed but also included both Spaniards and Indians of lower socio-economic extraction, often used together with other terms such as plebe, vulgo, naciones, clases, calidades, otras gentes, etc. 
  In a detailed analysis of Mexican archival records published in 2018, Ben Vinson came to a similar conclusion to the aforementioned academics.
  Often called the sistema de castas or the sociedad de castas, there was, in fact, no fixed system of classification for individuals, as careful archival research has shown. There was considerable fluidity in society, with individuals being identified by different categories simultaneously or over time. Individuals self-identified by particular terms, often to shift their status from one category to another to their advantage. For example, Mestizos were exempt from tribute obligations, but were as subject to the Inquisition as Spaniards were. Indios, on the other hand, paid tribute yet were exempt from the Inquisition. 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.
  Casta paintings produced largely in 18th-century Mexico have influenced modern understandings of race in Spanish America. They purport to show a fixed "system" of racial hierarchy which has been disputed by modern academia. These paintings should be evaluated as the production by elites in New Spain for an elite viewership in both Spanish territories and abroad, with sometimes pejorative portrayals of mixtures of Spaniards with other ethnicities. They are useful for understanding elites and their attitudes toward non-elites, and quite valuable as illustrations of aspects of material culture in the late colonial era.
  The process of mixing ancestries in the union of people of different races is known in the modern era as mestizaje (Portuguese: mestiçagem [meʃtʃiˈsaʒẽj], [mɨʃtiˈsaʒɐ̃j]). In Spanish colonial law, mixed-race castas were classified as part of the repúb
caption: Las castas. Casta painting showing 16 racial groupings, likely not depicting social reality. Anonymous, 18th century, oil on canvas, 148×104 cm, Museo Nacional del Virreinato, Tepotzotlán, Mexico.
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