New Spain casta system (sistema de castas)

Timeline

1. c. 1570–1601Mexico City and the parish network of New Spain · New SpainSpain's purity-of-blood screening originally excluded Jewish and Muslim converts; transplanted to the Americas it sat alongside the 'Republic of Spaniards' and 'Republic of Indians'. African slave labor added a third pole to lineage computation. By the opening of the 17th century, offices, monasteries, and emigration permits commonly required proof of 'clean' ancestry.
2. 1601–1630Parishes of Mexico City and the royal courts · Mexico CityBaptismal, marriage, and burial registers increasingly recorded statuses such as español, indio, mestizo, mulato, and negro. In litigation, inheritance, and impediments to marriage, lineage testimony decided whether one could be tax-exempt, hold public office, or enter certain orders. There was no unified code, but the classification was already an operative legal fact.
3. 1630–1650Viceroyalty of New Spain · New SpainBy mid-century, Indian tribute and labor service, militia obligations of free people of color, and competition for high office between creoles and peninsulares were all cut along casta status. Finer labels such as castizo and morisco multiplied in documents, showing mixed lineages further arithmetized. Urban plebeian society simultaneously featured bribery, status change, and cross-rank marriage; the hierarchy was not ironclad.
4. 1701–1822New Spain–Mexico · Mexico18th-century casta paintings arranged parental combinations and offspring terms into illustrated compendia, reinforcing the visual common sense of rank. After Mexican independence decrees abolished the legal racial hierarchy, ending the sistema de castas as a colonial legal institution, though its classificatory language still shapes narratives of social stratification.