Casta Painting

This 18th-c. colonial painting from New Spain (now Mexico) catalogs racial combinations with assigned caste names: Mestizo, Castizo, Mulato, Morisco, Chino, Salta Atrás, Lobo, Albazado, Cambujo, and others. Each scene depicts a mixed-race family, illustrating how Spanish authorities sought to codify identity and preserve social hierarchy through bloodline classification and visual order.