SOCIETY AND RACE IN THE SPANISH COLONIAL AMERICA:

“Los mestizajes pertenecen a una clase de objetos ante los que el historiador se siente desarmado”[1]

First of all, it is necessary to say that the study of the different races and castes in The Americas is a very complex question, but there are some elements to take it into account.

1)      The consequences of the conquest, because after the conquest, there were two main groups in this society, the rulers and the dominated. The rulers will be those who impose their language, their culture, their religion, their political systems and their power. So, in this basis, the dominated will lose those structures and key elements on which their identity was based until the arrival of the white Europeans.

2)      There are more factors that influence the ways that societies adopted in The Americas, like for example, the previous indigenous societies and the model of society imposed by the conquerors.

3)      There are also notable differences in geographical terms, because there are some places in where the vast population was indigenous and black slaves, as for example in the guettos that were created around cities and in the plantations. Moreover, the white population will be concentrated in the urban areas and in the cities, which where the enclave of European population.  

The group of the dominators was formed by Spaniards who came from Spain, and their descendants born in America, the criollos. Then, we have the indigenous and the black slaves from Africa. Seeing it this way, it does not look so complex, but we have to realize that from the beginning there was a process of miscegenation, from which emerged a large number of castes and racial differences result from the endless mix of all the elements of these societies.

As a result of this mixture, we have to talk about a vertical division based not only in the race, but in the economic power. Even so, the Spanish and Europeans people will be always in the top, just for being whites. Within the group of Spaniards, there was also a hierarchy, in which we found senior officials, viceroys, and nobility, and in a second place, the encomenderos and the hacendados.

In any event, even we speak about two very different groups (whites and indigenous), event this huge separation, they were part of the same society; they were in continual contact, because they live in the same spaces.

I think it deserves special mention the large number of castes that emerged from the mixture of races, and that is why I add this list explaining the different names they received in function of their origin:

1.        Mestizo: Spanish father and Indian mother

2.        Castizo: Spanish father and Mestizo mother

3.        Espomolo: Spanish mother and Castizo father

4.        Mulatto: Spanish and black African

5.        Moor: Spanish and Mulatto

6.        Albino: Spanish father and Moor mother

7.        Throwback: Spanish father and Albino mother

8.        Wolf: Throwback father and Indian mother

9.        Zambiago: Wolf father and Indian mother

10.     Cambujo: Zambiago father and Indian mother

11.     Alvarazado: Cambujo father and Mulatto mother

12.     Borquino: Alvarazado father and Mulatto mother

13.     Coyote: Borquino father and Mulatto mother

14.     Chamizo: Coyote father and Mulatto mother

15.     Coyote-Mestizo: Cahmizo father and Mestizo mother

16.     Ahi Tan Estas: Coyote-Mestizo father and Mulatto mother[i]

[1] Gruzinsky, Serge, El pensamiento mestizo, Barcelona, Editorial Paidós, 2000, p.60

[i] http://www.zonalatina.com/

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
GRUZINSKY, Serge, El pensamiento mestizo, Barcelona, Editorial Paidós, 2000.
MUÑOZ PEREZ, José; "La consolidación de la sociedad indiana", in NAVARRO GARCÍA, Luis (coord.); Historia de las Américas I, Universidad de Sevilla, Madrid, 1991. (627-659)
GARCÍA BERNAL, Manuela Cristina: "La Población de la América Hispana en el siglo XVI" in NAVARRO GARCÍA, Luis (coord.); Historia de las Américas I, Universidad de Sevilla, Madrid, 1991. (153-177)