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In colonial Latin America, it is possible to observe the segregation of the population by the caste systems. With Indians at the bottom, Africans slightly above, and Spaniards at the top, the caste system resembled a ladder of class and race (Garofalo & O’Toole, 2006). Mörner used the prohibition on sexual relations between individuals belonging to these three main categories under secular and religious law to illustrate the colonial elite’s concern about race-mixing (Garofalo & O’Toole, 2006). The children of these couplings were known as castes in colonial Spanish America. Mörner asserts that colonial people used physical traits derived from racial heritage to characterize both themselves and other people (Garofalo & O’Toole, 2006). Christianity, knowledge of Spanish or Portuguese, culture, manner of clothing, and cuisine all had a role in how race and ethnic identity perception (Burkholder & Johnson, 2019). In other words, race was a detrimental factor in the organization of social life in colonial Latin America.
The disparity in the attitudes according to race also varied by region. The system of casts took on different meanings in different locales. For instance, Aaron Althouse discovered that Patzcuarenses of African origin downplayed their African heritage in the “small provincial urban environment” of Pátzcuaro in the central state of Michoacán (Frederick, 2011, p. 500). Mestizos, on the other hand, served as a bridge group because they had access to social networks that were mostly out of reach for other racially mixed groups (Frederick, 2011, p. 500). The Valparaiso findings imply that racial categories matching particular economic features were required by societal norms. Comparing Oaxaca and Leon to Valparaiso shows that the former has fewer practices of endogamy (McCaa et al., 2019). However, the differences are not significant and are mainly marginal.
In addition, the differences in treatment could be found based on occupation. The majority of mestizos and mulattoes were low-status artisans, whereas the majority of peninsular were elite members (McCaa et al., 2019). Spanish-born merchants also dominated the field and were part of the social elite (Hoberman, 1977). Creoles were more widely dispersed across all occupational groups (McCaa et al., 2019). However, it was clear that they were clustered in the intermediate layers and poorly represented at the extremities (McCaa et al., 2019). These factors indicate the regional difference in attitudes towards race and endogamy.
References
Burkholder, M. A., & Johnson, L. L. (2019). Colonial Latin America (10th ed.). Oxford University Press.
Frederick, J. (2011). Without impediment: crossing racial boundaries in colonial Mexico. The Americas, 67(4), 495-515.
Garofalo, L., & O’Toole, R.S. (2006). Introduction: Constructing Difference in Colonial Latin America. Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History 7(1), doi:10.1353/cch.2006.0027.
Hoberman, L. S. (1977). Merchants in Seventeenth-Century Mexico City: A Preliminary Portrait. The Hispanic American Historical Review, 57(3), 479–503.
McCaa, R., Schwartz, S. B., & Grubessich, A. (1979). Race and class in colonial Latin America: a critique.Comparative Studies in Society and History, 21(3), 421-433.
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