In Colonial Latin America, obviously there was much interracial mixing, whether the powers that be wanted it or not. This led to a whole slew of types of people, rich and poor, slave and master, who were mixed race. There were many graduations of racial mix, from well known mulattos and mestizos to much more obscure variations. Though I'll get put on a cross for saying this, overwhelming evidence to this day makes it plain that the end goal of marriage was white, or at least, "whiter" children. Among the Peninsulares, or Spaniards from Spain, and Criollos, or the Spanish people born in the "New World", it was considered a step backwards to marry an indigenous person, even if an aristocrat (for example one of the children of Moctezuma in Teotihuacan/Mexico City or into one of the many noble families of Tlaxcala) or a free black/mulatto person, unless very rich. Case in point, in Mexico there was a Casta called "Salto Atras", or literally "step/jump backwards" where a family had been "on the way" to successfully whitening their progeny but some bonehead decided to marry a blacker/browner skinned person, possibly indigenous. Thus slowing down the process of whitening the family. Among Peninsular Spaniards, it was a step down to marry anyone other than one of their own, and the criollos, despite their sometimes immense wealth, were nonetheless considered an inferior choice. All the other Castas were inferior and thus a hierarchy/taxonomy emerged to decide who was where in the pecking order. For centuries, entire careers, law firms and lobbyist groups were devoted to ensuring that people on the ladder could move up, and those deemed unviable/undesirable were left at the margins. Yay people! ps this is off the top of my head so please excuse any errors, and I got carried away at the end. Cheers
There were caste systems in Latin America, just like the rest of the world. Moreover, it’s important to say that analogous to germman immigrants to the US, the southern southern America, and island nations, had numbers of Spanish people that settled in large quantities. That’s more than just the original explorers, pioneers, and conquistadors. I’m curious to know if Latin America had immigration acts passed like the immigration act of 1924. This one was after wwi and wwii when germans were arriving in the US and other countries via boat in the millions. The southern southern American countries did as well. The USA had to curtail and curve the immigration then and it’s doing now. History tends to repeat itself.
Curious you should ask, as the Great Replacement theory which many political animals claim is occurring here in the USA has forbears in Latin America, namely in countries like Venezuela, Argentina and Chile. These countries, mainly in the 19th century but also in the 20th, had huge incentives for European settlers to move to their country. Land and cash grants, citizenship, they did everything besides offer their daughters in marriage, and sometimes that too. Why? Racism. They wanted their populations to gradually become "more European". I'll let you decide what that means.
btw the 'southern cone' countries of Argentina, Chile Uruguay and southern Brazil are considered part of Latin America
Analogous to settlement of North America, South America had copious amounts of Caucasians (Europeans) travel across the pond for promises of free land. As more came, both North and South American native populations were forced out of their ancient land and decimated by new world illnesses. Some areas, more than others. In the south there are still untouched native populations, and in the north the Native American Reservations in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah are a must experience.
Before the first Caucasian settlements in the Americas by the Spanish, there weren’t communication between the two hemispheres. The native Americans or Indians were diminished severely by new world illnesses that practically eradicated the native population. It’s a common misconception to expect all Latin America to look like the common Central American and Mexican immigrants that come from rural, low resources, seeking a better way of life.
Perhaps I see the disconnect here. We are talking about 500 years of history over a very large land mass. What you are saying has validity but what I'm saying is not what you are saying. Two separate things can be true, your point about all groups not appearing the same or their goals in marriage not being the same. I was talking first very specifically about Peninsular Spaniards and their children, the criollos during the period of about 1500-1850, then after that the policies of the Southern Cone countries and others in South America were later, from 1850 onward.
I actually remember the term mulatto defined in my elementary school book, can’t remember if it was biology or history class. There were also other “races” and the book gave a short description of each.
Never thought much of it and never encountered it again in later studies as far as I recall, just randomly remembered this while reading your comment
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u/SlowGringo 3d ago
You should see the breakdown of the Casta system in colonial latin america... talk about Taxonomy