The document describes the caste system established by the Spanish in colonial Mexico. It ranked people in a racial hierarchy with Peninsulares (Spanish-born) at the top, followed by Criollos (American-born Spanish), Mestizos (mixed Spanish and native), Indios (natives), and Negroes (African slaves) at the bottom. Over time, factors like language, skills, wealth and cultural identity could allow some groups like Mestizos to rise in status, though discrimination was still prevalent. The caste system shaped Mexican society for centuries and its impacts on racial inequalities may still be felt today.

1. The Caste System
Henry L’Esperance Alvarez

2. The Caste System
• The Spanish instituted a caste system
based on race, which dictated an
individual’s relative importance.
• If the native or the “casta,” of mixed
blood, spoke Spanish, he or she was
considered superior to those who did
not.

5. The Caste System in New Spain
Peninsular: Spanish
Criollo: Spanish descent
born In America
Mestizo: offspring of
Spanish & native
Indio: or native
Negro: of African Salve
Descent
Mulato: offspring of Black
& Spanish

7. The Peninsulares
• The elite of society in the post-Conquest
colony was made up of the more than two
thousand Spaniards in Mexico in 1521
• The peninsulares held the best positions in
the civil and ecclesiastical hierarchies for
much of the colonial periods.

8. The Criollos
• Second level of colonial society was formed
by those of Spanish blood born in Mexico.
These criollos were by physical appearance
indistinguishable from the peninsulares, but
the mere fact of their New World birth was
sufficient to prejudice their status.
• Although, criollos were legally eligible to all
offices, there is no question that they
suffered discrimination.

10. Mestizos
• The majority of the mestizos could not aspire
to high status. A high percentage were
illegitimate (not infrequently the result of rape)
and the term mestizo was synonymous with
bastard for most of the colonial period.
• However, it is difficulty to generalize about
their status, which varied according to time
and place and was influenced by such factors
as physical characteristics, gender, the ability
to acquire skills or property, and cultural
identity.

11. Indians
• In 1519 approximately twenty-five million lived
in Central Mexico alone.
• By 1625-1650 the population declined to one
million or less.
• Spanish considered the Indians simply
pagans, cannibals, and sodimites. Natives
were frequently described as lazy, disposed
to vices, devious, and backward.
• Indians were forbidden to wear European
clothing. (In some cases they were imposed a
certain style of dress we still find in Bolivia
today.

13. The Blacks
• At first most slaves were personal servants
imported by prominent men.
• Indian laborers, both slave and free, had
never been satisfactory in regimented labor,
and it was commonly thought that one black
could do the work of four Indians. And as a
consequence of the declining Indian
population, 120,000 or more slaves entered
Mexico between 1519 and 1650.
• But blacks were expensive, while natives cost
little.

14. • The caste system was a legal system
imposed by the Spanish Crown within
its empire. Within this system the purity
of one’s blood (how white one was)
determined the social standing one had
in Spanish America. What impacts do
you think that system has today?