Sistema or Sociedad de Castas
"Esquema de Mestizaje"
Ricardo E. Cicero
Catálogo de la Colección de Antropologia
del Museo Nacionale de México, 1895

Plate 22, Alabarada x Indio; Chamizo, p. 86.jpg
Ilona Katzew, "New World Orders: Casta Painting and Colonial Latin America",
Americas Society Art Gallery, New York, 1996, Plate 22: Alabarada × Indian; Chamizo, p. 86

To the reader: please do not take offense at the terminology below. This terminology is clearly racist, and should be insulting to many, many people. This terminology is here as it is a record of how people were viewed.

Aside from terminology, members of each "casta" were more or less distinguishable by their dress. Sumptuary laws specified dress that would be illigal for members of specific castas to wear. Other ways in which the castas were distinguished were as follows: 1

  Parents   Offspring
Espanõl × india mestizo
Espanõl × negra mulato
Negro × india zambo o zamba
Mestizo × espanõla castizo
Mulato × espanõla morisco 2
Negro × zamba zambo prieto
Castizo × espanõla espanõl
Morisco 2 × mulata salta atrás3
Zambo × mulata calpan mulata
Salta atrás3 × india chino
Cal pan mulata × zambo Tente en el aíre4
Chino × mulata lobo
Tente en el aíre4 × mulata no te entiendo
Lobo × mulata jibaro
No te entiendo × india ahí te estás
Jibaro × india albarrazado
Albarrazado × negra cambuja
Cambujo × india zambo o zamba

1   Magnus Mörner, "Race Mixture in the History of Latin America", Little, Brown and Company, Boston, pp. 62-63.
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2   "Morisco/Morisca" was used in the Iberian peninsula to designate a Muslim, forced to convert to Catholicism (raza). Hence, when used to designate complexion (skin color, or casta), an ambiguity was created. "A royal decree in 1700 prohibited the use of this term [morisco] to avoid confusion with the identical Spanish word for 'converted Moor'." See Magnus Mörner, "Race Mixture in the History of Latin America", Little, Brown and Company, Boston, p. 58, footnote 21.
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3   "Salta atrás" means a "jump backward", away from from Spanish "blood". See Pedro Alonso O'Crouley (Sean Galvin, trans.), "A Description of The Kingdom of New Spain, 1774", John Howell, 1972, p. 19, footnote 2.
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4   "Tente en el aíre" means "very much in the air", or of dubious standing. See Pedro Alonso O'Crouley (Sean Galvin, trans.), "A Description of The Kingdom of New Spain, 1774", John Howell, 1972, p. 19, footnote 3.

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