AP World 19.5

The conquest and settlement of Latin America created the conditions for the formation of multi- ethnic societies on a large scale. The three major groups-Indians, Europeans, and Africans-had been brought together under very different conditions: the Europeans as conquerors and voluntary immigrants, the Indians as conquered peoples, and the Africans as slaves. This situation created hier- archies of masters and servants, Christians and pagans, that reflected the relationships of power and the colonial condition. In central Mexico, where an Indian nobility had existed, aspects of preconquest social organization were maintained because they served the ends of Spanish government. In theory, there was a separation between the "republic of the Spaniards," which included all non-Indians, and the "republic of the Indians," which was supposed to have its own social rankings and its own rules and laws. This separation was never a reality, however, and the "republic of the Indians" always formed the base on which all society rested. Indians paid tribute, something not required of others in society, except the mulattos in some places. 

The Society of Castas 

Spaniards had an idea of society drawn from their own medieval experience, but American realities soon altered that concept. The key was miscegenation. The conquest had involved the sexual exploi- tation of Indian women and occasional alliances formed by the giving of concubines and female servants. Marriages with indigenous women, especially of the Indian nobility, were not unknown. With few European women available, especially in frontier regions, mixed marriages and informal unions were common. The result was the growth of a large population of mixed background, the so-called mestizos. Although they were always suspected of illegitimacy, their status, especially in the early years, was higher than that of Indians. More acculturated than the Indians and able to operate in two worlds, mestizos became members of an intermediate category, not fully accepted as equals to Spaniards and yet expected to live according to the standards of Spanish society and often acting as auxiliaries to it. A similar process took place in areas such as Brazil and the Carib- bean coasts, where large numbers of African slaves were imported. Slave owners exploited their emale slaves or took slave women as mistresses, and then sometimes freed their mulatto children. The result was the growth of a large population of mixed background. 

Throughout the Spanish Indies, European categories of noble, priest, and commoner continued, as did hierarchies based on wealth and occupation. But American realities created new distinctions in which race and place of birth also played a crucial role. This was the sociedad de castas, based on racial origins, in which Europeans or whites were at the top, black slaves or Native Americans were at the bottom, and the many kinds of mixes filled the intermediate categories. This accompanied the great cultural fusion in the formation of Latin America (Figure 19.9). 

From the three original ethnic categories, many combinations and crosses were possible: mestizo, mulatto, and so on. By the 18th century, this segment of the population had grown rapidly, and there was much confu- sion and local variation in terminology. A whole genre of painting devel- oped simply to identify and classify the various combinations. Together, the people of mixed origins were called the castas, and they tended to be shopkeepers and small farmers. In 1650 the castas made up perhaps 5 to 10 percent of the population of Spanish America, but by 1750 they made up 35 to 40 percent (see Visualizing the Past). In Brazil, still dominated by slavery, free people of color made up about 28 percent of the population-a proportion equal to that of whites. Together, however, free and slave blacks and mulattos made up two-thirds of the inhabitants of Brazil in the late 18th century. 

As the mixed population grew in Spanish America, increasing restric- tions were placed on them, but their social mobility could not be halted. A successful Indian might call himself a mestizo; a mestizo who married a Spanish woman might be called white. The ranks of the castas were also swelled by former slaves who had been given or had bought their freedom. and by Indians who left their communities, spoke Spanish, and lived within the orbit of the Hispanic world. Thus, physical characteristics were only one criterion of rank and status, but color and ethnicity mattered, and they cre- ated a pseudoracial hierarchy. European or white status was a great social advantage. Not every person of European background was wealthy, but most of the wealthy merchants, landowners, bureaucrats, and miners were white. As one visitor wrote, "In America, every white is a gentleman." 

Originally, all whites had shared the privileged status of Span- iards regardless of the continent of their birth, but over time dis- tinctions developed between peninsulares, or those actually born in Spain, and Creoles, or those born in the New World. Creoles thought of themselves as loyal American Spaniards, but with so many mestizos around, the shadow of a possible Indian ancestor and illegitimacy always made their status suspect as far as the Europeans were con- cerned. Still, Creoles dominated the local economies, held sway over large numbers of dependents at their haciendas and mines, and stood at the top of society, second only to the peninsulares. Increasingly, they developed a sense of identity and pride in their accomplish- ments, and they were sensitive to any suggestion of inferiority or to any discrimination because of their American birth. That growing sense of self-identity eventually contributed to the movements for independence in Latin America. 

The hierarchy of race intersected with traditional Iberian dis- tinctions based on gender, age, and class. The father of a family had legal authority over his children until they were 25. Women were in a subordinate position; they could not serve in government and were expected to assume the duties of motherhood and household (Figure 19.10). After marriage, women came under the authority of their husbands, but many a widow assumed the direction of her fam- ily's activities. Lower-class women often controlled small-scale com- merce in towns and villages, worked in the fields, and labored at the looms of small factories. Marriages often were arranged and accom- panied by the payment of a dowry, which remained the property of the woman throughout the marriage. Women also had full rights to inheritance. Some upper-class women who did not marry at a young age were placed in convents to prevent contacts or marriages with partners of unsuitable backgrounds.