Latin American History Test 2 Flashcards Class 1 & 2

Casta System (Colonial Spanish America)

A legal and social hierarchy used in Spanish America (especially Mexico) to classify people by race, ancestry, and birthplace for taxation and administrative purposes.

What was the purpose of the Casta system?

Purpose: To maintain Spanish control and justify inequality through racial classification.

Peninsulares

born in spain

Criollos

Spanish blood, born in the Americas

Mestizos

Spanish + Indigenous

Mulatos

Spanish + African

Indios

Indigenous peoples

Negros

Africans or people of full African descent

Roles of peninsulares

Government officials and large landowners. Represented royal power and “racial purity.”

Roles of Criollos

Merchants, judges, mid-level officials. Wealthy but politically restricted—resentment later fueled independence movements.

Roles of Mestizos

Local merchants, small landowners, artisans, and laborers. Growing social group symbolizing cultural fusion but also marginalization

Roles of Mulatos

Servants, artisans, or farmhands. Often faced the most rigid barriers to social mobility.

Casta Paintings (18th-Century Mexico)

A genre of paintings visually representing the racial hierarchy and mixtures of the Casta system.

Purpose: Illustrated combinations of races and the resulting “castes,” typically showing parents and their child.

Function: Acted as visual propaganda—reinforcing Spanish superiority and the supposed order of society.

Structure of Casta Paintings

Each painting or set typically showed a Spanish father, a woman of another background, and their mixed-race child.

Features of Casta paintings

Clothing, posture, and setting reflected social rank and morality.


Example: Wealthier families shown in refined settings; mixed or darker-skinned castes depicted with disorder or manual labor.

Symbolism in Casta Paintings

• Clothing: Spaniards shown with fine fabrics; darker-skinned groups with simpler or torn clothing.

• Objects: European items (books, clocks) signaled education and civility.

• Setting: Urban vs. rural backgrounds implied rank and respectability.

Political Role of Casta Paintings

Displayed in public. Reinforced Spanish superiority and justified discrimination

Decline of the Casta System

Definition: After the Mexican War of Independence (1810–1821), the system lost legal authority.

Shift: New ideals of equality and mestizaje (racial mixing) emerged to unite the population.

Reality: Social prejudices and hierarchies persisted informally.

Mestizaje

Ideology of racial and cultural blending that became central to Mexican national identity.

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1651-1695)

Mexican nun, poet, and scholar; one of the first feminist voices in the Americas

Why Sor Juan joined a convent

To avoid marriage and have freedom to study and write.

“Yo, la peor de todas”

“I, the worst of women” what Sor Juana wrote in blood

Gender Hierarchy and the Role of Women

Colonial society was male-dominated — power, education, and authority were reserved for men.

Expected to be submissive, faithful, and pure; their lives centered around family and religion.

Women were told to model themselves after the Virgin Mary — chaste, obedient, and domestic.

Gender hierarchy double standards, education, and difference between classes

A woman’s “purity” defined her family’s honor; men had more sexual and social freedom.

Mostly denied, except for nuns, who were allowed to read and study religious texts.

Elite women faced stricter purity expectations; Indigenous, Black, and mixed-race women had fewer protections and faced more exploitation.