Francisco Clapera, De Mulato, y Espanola, Morisco.
Francisco Clapera, De Mulato, y Espanola, Morisco, about 1775. Oil paint on canvas. Gift of the Collection of Frederick and Jan Mayer, 2011.428.5. Photograph courtesy of the Denver Art Museum.
Background
Three racial groups came together to form the population of the Spanish colonies in the Americas. First there were Indigenous communities. These were groups like the Aztec, Quitu, and Diné, who lived in North and South America before the arrival of Spanish explorers. Then there were white European settlers. Most of these settlers were people of Spanish descent who chose to immigrate to the colonies. Finally, there were Black people who were primarily from West Africa. Most of the Black people in the Spanish colonies were forced to move there by enslavers who kidnapped them from their homelands.
Over the years, these three racial groups interacted freely while building and sustaining the Spanish colonies. Although frowned upon, sexual relationships and marriages between members of different racial groups were not uncommon. These interracial relationships resulted in a large population of mixed-race people who challenged the traditional racial hierarchies that ruled in Europe.
About the Resource
This is one in of a series called casta, or “caste,” paintings. Casta paintings originated in colonial Mexico, where they became a popular way to demonstrate the unique culture and abundance of the colony for people in Spain. They also illustrate the various mixed-race families and individuals that existed in the Spanish colonies of the Americas. Today, casta paintings are important records of the culture and daily life in the Spanish colonies.
There are typically fourteen to sixteen paintings in casta series. The paintings are numbered and labeled so the viewer can identify the races shown. It is important to note that every series starts with paintings that feature full blood Spanish men. Also, families with full blood Spanish members are depicted with wealthier lifestyles than families made up of other races, even though this was not always the case in the Spanish colonies. These deliberate choices reveal that although there was a great deal of interracial marriage in the Spanish colonies, white settlers and government officials were still eager to promote white supremacy.
Vocabulary
- Aztec: One of the two dominant communities of the Yucatán Peninsula at the time of European contact. Most Aztec people spoke the Nahuatl language.
- caste: A fixed social group into which an individual is born and from which they usually cannot move.
- Diné: The Indigenous community that has for centuries inhabited a large area of land that stretches across modern day Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah. The western name for the Diné is Navajo.
- hierarchy: The classification of people according to race, class, ability, social standing, etc.
- Quitu: The Indigenous community that founded the city of Quito, which is today the capital of Ecuador.
Discussion Questions
- What details did the artist include in these paintings? What do these details reveal about life in the colony of Mexico?
- According to the numbering system of these paintings, how did interracial marriage impact the social status of women? What does this reveal about the way women were viewed in the Spanish colonies?
- How do these paintings reinforce white supremacy?
Suggested Activities
- Assign each painting to a small group of students. Ask them to investigate what it reveals about life in colonial Mexico and invite them to present what they learn to the class. For an additional challenge, invite students to read an additional source about life in the Spanish colonies, and write about how what they learned challenges the image depicted in the casta paintings.
- Pair this resource with Purity of Blood and Life Story: Esperanza Rodríguez to explore the importance of racial and ethnic purity in the Spanish colonies.
- Pair this resource with The Middle Passage and Diary of Úrsula de Jesús to think about the ways in which racial identity and enslavement informed all aspects of daily life in the Spanish colonies.
- For a deeper understanding of the role of racial hierarchy across many different colonies and in the early US, pair this resource with any or all of the following:
Themes
POWER AND POLITICS
