Casta Painting, 1777. Ignacio María Barreda.
Real Academia Española, Madrid, Spain.

Casta or “caste” paintings depict, in more explicit terms than almost any other colonial objects, the effects of inter-cultural mixing. Typically casta paintings comprise sixteen scenes that register, through the presentation of family groups, the progressive dilution of 'pure' Spanish, Indian, and African blood. Inscriptions set within or near to each painted panel identify the names assigned each new “caste” created thus. In so doing, these works reinscribe two colonial presumptions: that such inter-cultural (inter-racial) mixing would manifest itself visually and socially, and that such a process demanded commentary.

In this painting, just below the first scene in the upper left corner, a well-dressed Spanish man extends his arms to receive his child from his indigenous mate; the text reads, "De Español, y Indio, Mestizo o Cholo" (From Spaniard and Indian, Mestizo or Cholo). Tracing across the top from left to right and then down the caste hierarchy, we see the generations of castizo, español criollo, and mulatto children. And in the lowest compartment of all, the painter presents “barbarian” indigenous people, called mecos.

Casta paintings link purity of blood to status. In these painted settings, Spaniards have the highest social standing, usually appearing in the first panel of each series; across successive scenes, the pairs become darker and increasingly poor. Those in the lowest rungs are either those of the most mixed blood or those so 'barbaric' and 'uncivilized' as to be beyond the realm of mixing.

This desire to classify the people of the New World has many origins. One intellectual source can be found in Enlightenment teachings that sought to find (or create) order and rational explanations for both the natural and social world. These were popular in Spanish America in the latter part of the 18th century. Another source was social anxiety about a person’s place in the increasingly complex and heterogeneous world of the colonies. These paintings were made in both New Spain and Perú in the 18th century. The few names of patrons currently known indicate that collectors of these paintings included Spanish administrators in the Americas. In this case, Ignacio María Barreda created this oil-on-canvas painting for a friend, one Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Rafael de Aguilera y Orense, a military man who spent part of his career in New Spain.

Whether or not paintings such as this one did, in fact, represent “order” or “reason” for 18th-century viewers, is not known. But they do give visual expression to the complex process of mestizaje among groups that inhabited New Spain.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Carrera, Magali. 2003. Imagining Identity in New Spain: Race, Lineage and the Colonial Body in Portraiture and Casta Paintings. Austin. University of Texas Press.

Deans-Smith, Susan. 2005. "Creating the Colonial Subject: Casta Paintings, Curiosities and Collectors in Eighteenth-century Mexico and Spain." Colonial Latin America Review 14 (2): 169-204.

García Sáiz, Concepción. 1989. Las castas mexicanas: Un género pictórico americano. Milan: Olivetti.

Katzew, Ilona. 2004. Casta Painting: Images of Race in 18th-century Mexico. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Majluf, Natalia. 1999. Los cuadros de mestizaje del virrey Amat: la representación etnográfica en el Perú colonial. Lima: Museo de Arte.

	Casta: (Spanish) A person of mixed or indefinite ethnicity. In Spanish America, the caste system (sistema de castas in Spanish) categorized individuals of different origin and their offspring with terms like negro, mulatto and mestizo. Casta paintings, created in the 18th century in both New Spain and Peru, offer highly idealized visual and verbal catalogues of the intermarried couples and their children present in Spanish America. back to text
	Enlightenment: (English) A philosophical movement of the 18th century, first developed in western Europe, and also known as the “Age of Reason.” The Enlightenment brought empirical methods to science and held that social, intellectual and scientific progress could be achieved through reason. back to text
	Meco: (Spanish) A derogatory term for an indigenous person who does not live in a settled community, has not converted to Christianity, nor accepted “civilized” modes of living. The term derives from the word “Chichimec” which was used in central Mexico in pre-Hispanic times to describe nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples in a negative light. back to text
	Mestizaje: (Spanish) A descriptive word for the ethnic and cultural mixings in the New World. back to text
	Mestizo: (Spanish) A person of indigenous and European descent. The female form is mestiza. back to text
	Mulatto: (Spanish) A multi-racial person of African descent. In Spanish America, according to the proscribed definition of the casta system, mulattos had one parent of African descent and one of European; in practice, peopled labeled as mulattos could have indigenous and multi-racial parents and/or ancestors. back to text
	New Spain: (English) The name that Spain gave to her northern Viceroyalty, which comprised the modern regions of Mexico, Central America, Venezuela, and the Caribbean. The capital city was Mexico City. back to text
	Perú: (Spanish) The name Spain gave to her southern Viceroyalty. The Viceroyalty of Perú stretched across Panama and most of South America, with the exception of Venezuela, which was part of New Spain, and coastal Brazil, which was held by the Portuguese. The capital city of the viceroyalty was Lima. back to text
	Spanish America: (English) The areas of the New World under Spanish control. From the 16th to 18th centuries, Spanish America comprised most of South America (except Portuguese-held Brazil), the Caribbean, Central America, and southern and western North America. back to text

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