Guadalupe and the Castas

Abstract

A mid-eighteenth-century casta painting by Luis de Mena uniquely unites the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe and casta (mixed-race) groupings, along with scenes of everyday life in Mexico, and the natural abundance of New Spain. Reproduced multiple times, the painting has not been systematically analyzed. This article explores individual elements in their colonial context and the potential meanings of the painting in the modern era. Una pintura de Luis de Mena sobre las castas, de mediados del siglo xviii, reúne de manera singular la imagen de la Virgen de Guadalupe, los agrupamientos de castas y escenas de la vida cotidiana en México, junto con la abundancia natural de Nueva España. Aunque reproducida en múltiples ocasiones, la pintura no ha sido analizada sistemáticamente. Este artículo explora sus elementos individuales en el contexto colonial y los significados potenciales de la pintura en la época moderna.

From Multiracial to Monoracial: The Formation of Mexican American Identities in the U.S. Southwest

“…Europeans were few and mostly single males, who formed liaisons with Indigenous and African-descent women. Most of these unions were consummated outside of matrimony through some level of coercion and violence involving rape, fleeting extramarital relations, and concubinage (Cline 2015;Mörner 1967). In general, relationships between social unequals were restricted to concubinage or consensual unions, to which the Church turned a blind eye (Furtado 2008;Katzew 2004;Seed 1992).…”

“…Mestizos were differentiated from other castas in law and public esteem, while those with property or social connections to elite Spaniards were less likely to be labeled as mestizo (Althouse 2005;Mörner 1967;Schwaller 2016). As progeny of mestizos and Whites, castizos were considered near-White, while the offspring of castizos and Whites resulted in the restoration of Spanish "racial purity" (Cline 2015;Katzew 2004;Martínez 2008). Mulattoes and other multiracials with African ancestry ranked lower than mestizos in the racial hierarchy.…”

“…Consequently, no reduction in the degree of African ancestry made possible a return to Spanish racial purity. Blacks and Indigenous people were at the bottom of the racial hierarchy, although the latter ranked somewhat higher than the former (Chance 1978;Cline 2015;Katzew 2004;Martínez 2008;Schwaller 2016). 6 However, casta identities were enforced arbitrarily and inconsistently.…”

“…Moreover, the caste schema never completely closed off the possibility of vertical mobility (Lewis 2003). Cline (2015) also maintains that the myriad terms found in the famous eighteenth-century casta paintings had no legal standing. Casta paintings may have been the White colonial elites' attempt to put into place racial divisions based on hybrid fixity in a social reality characterized by increased race and class fluidity.…”