18C Indigenous Women in Latin American Families - Caste Paintings - Racial Mixes Determined Status, Privileges, & Obligations

1763 Caste Painting Series by Miguel Cabrera (c 1695-1768) De Español y Mulata; Morisca

Status in the social hierarchy of much of the 18C Middle & South Americas status depended on skin color & intermarriages between social groups.

1763 Caste Painting Series by Miguel Cabrera (c 1695-1768) De Castizo y Mestiza; Chamizo

There was an exhibit in New York City, "New World Orders: Casta Painting & Colonial Latin America" at the Americas Society in 1996. 

Shown there were intimate, family portrayals of the racial mixing of the melting pot of the Americas forged from New World colonialism & Spanish Catholicism. Generally Latin America is defined as the region of the Americas where Romance languages (i.e., those derived from Latin) – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, & variably French – are primarily spoken.

1763 Caste Painting Series by Miguel Cabrera (c 1695-1768) De Chino cambujo y d’India; Loba

And then, a couple of years ago, I read that the curator of that exhibit Ilona Katzew's book called Casta Painting: Images of Race in 18th-Century Mexico. It was published by the Yale University Press, in New Haven in 2004, and focused on the paintings of Miguel Cabrera c 1695-1768.

1763 Caste Painting Series by Miguel Cabrera (c 1695-1768) De Español y Albina; Torna atrás

Katzew used this primary source to help explain the need for the caste system in Mexico. In 1770 Francisco Antonio Lorenzana, a Spanish prelate and archbishop of Mexico from 1766 to 1772, remarked on the diversity of Mexico's population as opposed to Spain's: "Two worlds God has placed in the hands of our Catholic Monarch, and the New does not resemble the Old, not in its climate, its customs, nor its inhabitants; it has another legislative body, another council for governing, yet always with the end of making them alike: In the Old Spain only a single caste of men is recognized, in the New many and different."

1763 Caste Painting Series by Miguel Cabrera (c 1695-1768) De Español y d’India; Mestisa

Colonial Mexico was home to a vast array of ethnoracial groups. In the first years following the Spanish conquest, most people fell into one of 3 distinct ethnoracial categories. They were either indigenous Nahuas, peninsular Spaniards, or Africans (both enslaved and free). Sexual contact between Spaniards, Indians, & Blacks occurred from the 16th-century on, resulting in a growing group of racially-mixed people known collectively as castas-a term used by Spaniards & creoles (Spaniards born in the Americas) to distinguish themselves from racially-mixed people. By the end of the 18th century, about 1/4 of the population of Mexico was racially mixed.

1763 Caste Painting Series by Miguel Cabrera (c 1695-1768) De Español y Mestiza, Castiza

A series of depictions of families called casta paintings emerged as a way of illustrating the proper classification of the various mixing of races that determined rank in that society. For historians, they are a treasure trove of costumes & home settings & even shops & employments. But they are much more than that.

1763 Caste Painting Series by Miguel Cabrera (c 1695-1768) De Español y Torna atrás; Tente en el aire

Maria Elena Martinex's Genealogical Fictions: Limpieza de Sangre, Religion and Gender in Colonial Mexico (Stanford University Press, 2008) based on her 2002 PhD dissertation at the Univeristy of Chicago, is a fine in-depth study of the interplay between the Spanish concept of limpieza de sangre (purity of blood) & colonial Mexico's sistema de castas, a hierarchical system of social classification based primarily on ancestry. She examines how this notion surfaced amid socio-religious tensions in early modern Spain, & was initially used against Jewish & Muslim converts to Christianity. It was then exported to the Americas, adapted to colonial conditions, & employed to create & reproduce identity categories according to descent. Martínez also examines how the state, church, Inquisition, & other institutions in colonial Mexico used the notion of purity of blood over time to shape the region's patriotic & racial ideologies.

1763 Caste Painting Series by Miguel Cabrera (c 1695-1768) De Indio y Barcina; Zambuigua

In these family scenes, husbands & wives from different races are shown with their offspring & ranked according to their place in Mexico's social structure.

1763 Caste Painting Series by Miguel Cabrera (c 1695-1768) De Lobo y d’India, Albarazado

These paintings were very popular in 18C Spain as well as other parts of Europe. Peru & the French colonies also classified society according to racial mixes.

1763 Caste Painting Series by Miguel Cabrera (c 1695-1768) De Negro y d’India, China cambuja.

In colonial Latin America the racial caste system was so overt that a baby's social identity as white, indigenous, African, or mixed was officially assigned in the church baptismal register.

1763 Caste Painting Series by Miguel Cabrera (c 1695-1768) Indios gentiles (Heathen Indians)

According to the European racial notions of the day in Spain, "purity of blood" was considered a virtue; consequently, Africans and Indians are nobly rendered.

1763 Caste Painting Series by Miguel Cabrera (c 1695-1768)

Mixed-race couples depicted in these paintings are clearly poorer, wearing shabbier clothes in starker circumstances, than their purer-blooded ancestors. Spaniards & their Indian or African brides sport rich European costumes, while Lobo- Mestizo couples wear plain or even ragged dress.

1763 De Español y d’India; Mestisa

re commissioned by on-site colonial administrative & religious officials in the 1700s, often meant to serve as instructive souvenirs to be sent back to Spain. Because these paintings were a form of propaganda & social control generated by the colonial elite, it is impossible to tell from their content how these subordinate groups of people understood, accomodated, or resisted the process of domination by the colonial administrations.

1763 De Mestizo y d’India; Coyote

Europeans did not regard these casta paintings as art objects but as proof of their wealth & power & as insturctive ethnographic illustrations.

José de Alcíbar, De Negro y De India Sale Lovo

These casta paintings were depictions by the colonial intruder trying to establish a means of retaing power using New World gene pools that were quickly merging.

Chino or Albino = Spanish and Morisca

Colonial powers assigned different castes with different privileges & obligations. These visual representations made it easy for all to understand, whether they could read or not.

Cambur = African, Spanish, + Indian

"Casta" is Spanish for caste. These "casta paintings" are incredibly frank documents of the race-based social hierarchy that existed in colonial Latin America during the 17th & 18th century.

Mestizo = Spanish + Indian

On the other hand, however, these paintings also depict a rather harmonious coexistence of Indian, Spaniard & Black, in 18th-century Mexico.

Mestizo = Spanish + Indian

Some of the terms denoting the mix of races had zoological meanings.The lowest among the mixes of races were often denigrated with animal names like Lobo (Wolf) & Coyote.

Mestizo = Spanish + Indian

As the mixing further dilutes the pure gene pools, negative terms such as “Tente en el aire” meaning "throw in the air" suggest something that is worth nothing.

Mulato = Spanish and African

Many of the names/terms used to describe the identity of an individuals racial heritage within the casta paintings were made up of common slang terms. Some of these terms are still in use today, mulatto is has the widest usage.

Sambahigo = Cambujo + Indian or Spanish or African

Mexican Castes:
Albarazado = Cambujo + Mulatto
Albino/Ochavado = Spanish + African or Morisco
Allí te estás = Chamizo + Mestiza
Barcino = Albarazado + Mutlata
Barnocino = Albarazado + Mestiza
Calpamulato = Zambaigo + Loba
Cambujo = Zambaigo + Indian
Cambur = African, Spanish, + Indian
Cambuto/a = Spanish + African
Castizo = Spanish + Mestizo (Spanish & a person 1/2 Spanish & 1/2 indigenous)
Chamizo = Coyote + Indian
Chino or Albino = Spanish + Morisca
Cimarrón = African, Spanish, + Indian
Coyote = African, Spanish, + Indian
Coyote = Indian + Metiza
Jíbaro/Jabaro = Lobo + China /Spanish, Indian, or African
Lobo = Indian, African + Salta atrás
Mestizo = Spanish + Indian
Morisco or Cuarterón = Spanish + Mulatto
Mulato = Spanish + African
Negro fino = African + Spanish
No te entiendo = Tente en el aire + Mulatta
Nometoques = Parts of many races, including African
Pardo = Spanish, Indian, + African
Prieto = African + Spanish
Salta atrás/Tornatras = Spanish, African, + Albina
Sambahigo = Cambujo + Indian or Spanish or African
Spanish = Castiza + Spanish
Tente en el aire = Calpamulatto + Cambuja
Torna atrás = No te entiendo + Indian
Tresalvo = Spanish + African
Zambaigo = Lobo + Indian
Zambo = Indian + African

For Peru, Viceroy Amat King Carlos III 1770.

Castes in Peru:
Mestizo = Spaniard + Indian,
Quadroon, Quinterón = Spaniard + Mestiza or Mulatto
Mulatto = Spaniard + Black,
Quinterona, Requinterona = Spaniard + Mulatto,
Requinterona = Spaniard + Mulatto,
Cholo = Mestizo + Indian,
Chinese = Mulatto + Indian,
Chinese Quadroon = Spaniard + Chinese,
Zambo = Black + Indian, or Black + Mulatto

For Peru Viceroy Amat King Carlos III in 1770

French Colonial castes:
Sacatra = Griffe + Black,
Griffe = Black + Mulatto
Marabon = Mulatto + Griffe,
Mulatto = White + Black,
Quarteron = White + Mulatto,
Metif = White + Quarteron,
Meamelouc = White + Metif,
Quarteron = White + Meamelouc,
Sang-mele = White + Quarteron

Jose Joaquin Mangon [Mexican], Castizo = Spanish + Mestizo c 1770

Hierarchy of the Casta Paintings Miguel Cabrera, 1763
1. De Español y d’India; Mestisa
2. De Español y Mestiza, Castiza
3. De Español y Castiza, Español
4. De Español y Negra, Mulata
5. De Español y Mulata; Morisca
6. De Español y Morisca; Albina
7. De Español y Albina; Torna atrás
8. De Español y Torna atrás; Tente en el aire
9. De Negro y d’India, China cambuja.
10. De Chino cambujo y d’India; Loba
11. De Lobo y d’India, Albarazado
12. De Albarazado y Mestiza, Barcino
13 De Indio y Barcina; Zambuigua
14. De Castizo y Mestiza; Chamizo
15. De Mestizo y d’India; Coyote
16. Indios gentiles (Heathen Indians)

By José de Bustos, an artist who worked in Puebla around 1724

Although the artists creating many of the paintings in this post are unidentified, painters commissioned to work in this genre included Juan Rodriguez Juarez, Miguel Cabrera, Jose de Paex, Jose Alfaro, Ignacio Maria Barreda, Andres de Islas, Mariano Guerrero, Luis Berruecco, Ignacio de Castro, Jose de Bustos, and Jose Joaquin Magon.

By José de Bustos, an artist who worked in Puebla around 1724

Jíbaro or Jabaro = Indian, and African

Mestizo = Spanish + Indian

Detail Mestizo = Spanish + Indian

Mestizo = Spanish and Indian

Morisco = Spanish and Mulatto

Spanish = Castiza and Spanish

Spanish and Morisco = Albino

Mulato = Spanish + African

Unknown artist From Return-Backwards and Grifo, Chino c 1770

Unknown artist Peruvian Mestizo and Mestiza, Mestizo, c. 1770

De albarrado é india nace Cachimboreta

De Chamizo é india sale Cambuja

De español é india produce mestizo

De español y alvina sale negro torna atras

De español y casitza sale española

De español y mestiza Castiza

De español y morisca sale alvino

De indio y albarazada Produce Chamizo

De indio y Cambuja nace lobo torna atras

De lobo y india sale sambaiga

De mestizo e india sale coiote

De mulato y española sale morisco

De negra é india sale lobo

De negro y española sale mulato

De sambaigo é india sale albarazado

Juan Rodriguez Juarez, Es tornatrás (retrato de casta). Año ca. 1720.

Juan Rodriguez Juarez De castizo, y española, produce españa 1720

Juan Rodríguez Juárez, De Castiso y Española produce Español 1720

Juan Rodriguez Juarez De español, y de india produce mestizo 1720

Juan Rodríguez Juárez. Técnica Óleo sobre tela 1720

José de Paez. (Mexican artist, 1720-1795)

Benjamin West 1728-1820 paints Pontiac's Rebellion where British tried to kill all the Native Americans With Smallpox

From Europe to the Atlantic coast of America & on to the Pacific coast during the 17C-19C, settlers moved West encountering a variety of Indigenous Peoples who had lived on the land for centuries.

Charles Grignion I (English engraver, 1717–1810) engraving after Benjamin West (American artist, 1738-1820) Indians delivering up the English captives to Colonel Bouquet, event in Pontiac's Rebellion. Because many children taken as captives had been adopted into Native families, their forced return often resulted in emotional scenes, as depicted in this engraving based on a painting by Benjamin West.

Pontiac's Rebellion & early Biological Warfare

Pontiac's Rebellion was a war launched in 1763 by North American Indians who were dissatisfied with British policies in the Great Lakes region after the British victory in the French & Indian War/Seven Years' War (1754–1763). The conflict is named after its most famous participant, the Ottawa leader Pontiac. Warriors from numerous tribes joined the uprising in an effort to drive British soldiers & settlers out of the region. 

Contributing to the outbreak of war was a religious awakening sweeping through Indian settlements in the early 1760s. The movement was fed by discontent with the British as well as food shortages & epidemic disease. Neolin, known as the "Delaware Prophet", who called upon Indians to shun the trade goods, alcohol, & weapons of the whites. Merging elements from Christianity into traditional religious beliefs, Neolin told listeners that the Master of Life was displeased with the Indians for taking up the bad habits of the white men, & that the British posed a threat to their very existence. "If you suffer the English among you," said Neolin, "you are dead men. Sickness, smallpox, & their poison [alcohol] will destroy you entirely."

The war began in May 1763 when American Indians, alarmed by policies imposed by British General Jeffrey Amherst, attacked a number of British forts & settlements. Eight forts were destroyed, & hundreds of colonists were killed or captured, with many more fleeing the region. Hostilities came to an end after British Army expeditions in 1764 led to peace negotiations over the next 2 years. The Indians were unable to drive away the British but did prompt the British government to modify the policies tward the Native Americans.

Colonists in western Pennsylvania fled to the safety of Fort Pitt after the outbreak of the war. Nearly 550 people crowded inside, including more than 200 women & children.  Simeon Ecuyer, the Swiss-born British officer in command, wrote that "We are so crowded in the fort that I fear disease…; the smallpox is among us." Fort Pitt was attacked on June 22, 1763, primarily by Delawares. 

For Amherst, who before the war had dismissed the possibility that the Indians would offer any effective resistance to British rule, the military situation over the summer became increasingly grim. He wrote his subordinates, instructing them that captured enemy Indians should "immediately be put to death". To Colonel Henry Bouquet at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, who was preparing to lead an expedition to relieve Fort Pitt, Amherst made the following proposal on about June 29, 1763: "Could it not be contrived to send the small pox among the disaffected tribes of Indians? We must on this occasion use every stratagem in our power to reduce them." 

Bouquet agreed, replying to Amherst on July 13: "I will try to inoculate the bastards with some blankets that may fall into their hands, & take care not to get the disease myself." Amherst responded favorably on July 16: "You will do well to inoculate the Indians by means of blankets, as well as every other method that can serve to extirpate this execrable race." 

As it turned out, officers at the besieged Fort Pitt had already attempted to do what Amherst & Bouquet were still discussing, apparently without having been ordered to do so by Amherst or Bouquet. During a parley at Fort Pitt on June 24, 1763, Ecuyer gave representatives of the besieging Delawares two blankets & a handkerchief that had been exposed to smallpox, hoping to spread the disease to the Indians in order to end the siege. This was not the first time that a crude form of biological warfare had been attempted in the region: in 1761, American Indians had attempted to poison the well at Fort Ligonier using an animal carcass.

It is uncertain whether the British successfully infected the Indians. Because many American Indians died from smallpox during Pontiac's Rebellion, some historians concluded that the attempt was successful, but many scholars now doubt that conclusion. One reason is that the outbreak of smallpox among the Ohio Indians apparently preceded the blanket incident. Furthermore, the Indians outside Fort Pitt kept up the siege for more than a month after receiving the blankets, apparently unaffected by any outbreak of disease. The two Delaware chiefs who handled the blankets were in good health a month later as well. Finally, because the disease was already in the area, it may have reached Indian villages through a number of vectors. Eyewitnesses reported that native warriors contracted the disease after attacking infected white settlements, & they may have spread the disease upon their return home.

The ruthlessness of the conflict was a reflection of a growing racial divide between British colonists & American Indians. The British government sought to prevent further racial violence by issuing the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which created a boundary between colonists & Indians.

American Artist Benjamin West

Benjamin West (1738-1820) was the 10th child of a rural innkeeper in Springfield, Pennsylvania, in October, 1738, & died exaulted in London, in March, 1820. Before his ascension to historical allegory painter for English royalty, he began learning his craft as a humble portraitist in Philadelphia. West told John Galt, his biographer, that when he was a child, Native Americans showed him how to make paint by mixing some clay from the river bank with bear grease in a pot.

During his years painting in the British American colonies, his portraits exhibit a modest attempt to emulate the baroque & rococo styles, which he probably observed in Philadelphia. His modest American portrait compositions also exhibit some knowledge of English mezzotint portraits reflecting the works of Peter Lely (1618–160) & Godfrey Kneller (1646–1723). West told a friend that a "Mr. Hide (Haidt), a German, gave him instruction. Johann Valentine Haidt (1700-1780), a Moravian evangelist & trained artist, painted not just portraits, but also history & religious paintings. Apparently, Benjamin West became determined to paint inspiring historical & religious compositions as well.

He later wrote, "Most undoubtedly had not (I) been settled in Philadelphia I should not have embraced painting as a profession." However, his early move away from Philadelphia to England was necessary for him to work in a country where artists were commissioned to paint inspiring depictions of history's real & imagined indispensable men & women who made extreme sacrifices & performed noble deeds. In the American colonies, the gentry paid for portraits, not inspiration.

Benjamin West became a painter of historical scenes, sometimes including Native Americans, around & after the time of the American War of Independence & the Seven Years' War. During his 22 years in America, he was a fairly typical provincial artist; but his choice to leave the colonies in 1760, for Europe & England led to his appointment as the official painter at the court of King George III & to his becoming co-founder of the Royal Academy in London, where 3 generations of fellow American students would return home from his tutelage to impact the art of the emerging republic.

1761 Cherokee commission in Louisiana

1761 Oconstota's (Cherokee) French Commission as Captain grand chef medaille de la ford  by the French Governor of Louisiana, Louis de Kerlerec at the National Archives

1781 Ottigaumies Fox Indians of Wisconsin

Jonathan Carver 1781 Ottigaumies Fox Indians of Wisconsin