{"id":36,"date":"2017-09-18T20:19:55","date_gmt":"2017-09-19T03:19:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/last100kelly\/?p=36"},"modified":"2017-09-19T09:02:20","modified_gmt":"2017-09-19T16:02:20","slug":"week-3-casta-paintings-latin-american-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/last100kelly\/2017\/09\/18\/week-3-casta-paintings-latin-american-identity\/","title":{"rendered":"Week 3 – Casta Paintings & Latin American Identity"},"content":{"rendered":"

When learning about history, what seems to stick with me the most is how historical events and ideas manifest themselves in the present day. When reading about casta<\/em> paintings this week from\u00a0Susan Deans-Smith’s article, I kept thinking about how these have affected the race relations, social hierarchies, and hegemonic ideas we see today in Latin America.<\/p>\n

How do\u00a0casta\u00a0<\/em>paintings represent the ethnic diversity in Latin America? How do they depict a Latino\/Latina\/Latinx person?<\/p>\n

For this second question, I thought about what being Latino\/Latina\/Latinx means, in terms of race. Casta paintings define the Latin American person as one who can be categorized into one of sixteen racial groups.<\/p>\n

Contrastingly, Latin Americans are often seen in Canada as one distinct racial group, without nuance. For example, below is a question from the 2016 Canadian Census, asking about race:<\/p>\n

\"\"

Screen shot from http:\/\/www12.statcan.gc.ca\/nhs-enm\/2016\/ref\/questionnaires\/questions-eng.cfm<\/p><\/div>\n

The question above makes me wonder if perhaps, casting the Latin American person into one large group is also productive? What would you circle if you were an Afro-Cuban? Or a member of an Indigenous community that does not recognize colonial borders?\u00a0Or Alberto Fujimori, the former president of Peru, who is of Japanese ancestry?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Another view of Latin American racial identity can be found in the music video for\u00a0Latinoam\u00e9rica\u00a0<\/em>by Puerto Rican music group, Calle 13. Unifying visuals of what it means to be Latin American are used: we see repetitive scenes of people eating, drinking, walking, etc. to show oneness. Depictions of race are also present; from 0:30- 0:52 and 4:55 – 5:13, we see faces of diverse people who are meant to represent the Latin American. While the lyrics and video have many themes, in terms of race, they seem to push the idea of one people, much like that of the Canadian government, which lies in contrast with the separation and categorization promoted by the\u00a0casta\u00a0<\/em>paintings.\u00a0Interestingly enough, although this video promotes a unifying message, it does not include the faces of the many immigrants who have settled in Latin America, for example, the over 400 000 people of Chinese descent living in Venezuela.<\/p>\n