So this week was focused on the Casta Paintings or grouping of people based on race. It was used for social control and often dictated someones role in the social system. Some defining characteristics depicted in the paintings were the clothes the people were wearing. Generally the “purer” European descendant wore the most elaborate and expensive clothing. So Spain during this time of colonization and expansions of the new world seemed to be having a sort of identity crisis in the homeland. They wanted to create a more uniform land. Things became even more difficult for them with their newly conquered land, as diversity was vast. Even more so was this evident when Africans were shipped over in masses to work as slaves in large part due to the ever growing sea of illness and death that shrouded the natives. Personally, I disagree with social class systems and all they stand for, as most decent human beings of todays age would. Race is not a choice and never was. Being locked into a sort of social floor is disheartening and detrimental to some, while wrongfully empowering to others.

• Casta Paintings
• race