Nations, Castes, Qualities, and Races in Latin American Viceregal Societies

Abstract

Social and economic distinctions in viceregal or colonial societies – understood today as Latin American countries – had different meanings depending on the contexts and time periods. Ideas and notions that affected hierarchical status within social groups varied throughout time: it was not the same to be an enslaved African during the wars of the Spanish conquest, as it was in the mid-seventeenth century on a plantation or to work in a guild in an important city. Nor was an enslaved person who arrived in the seventeenth century to be placed in different economic activities such as mining, livestock, domestic household labor, convents, or churches perceived equally as those who arrived in the eighteenth century to work in sugarcane plantations – and all were very different from free mulattos who could achieve better life conditions. This chapter is based on the premise that populations of African origin in Latin American societies were heterogeneous and therefore occupied different positions in the social hierarchy. Therefore, this chapter aims at reflecting on the meanings of the notions of caste, quality, or race in viceregal or colonial societies, emphasizing the place held within the social hierarchy by Africans and Afro-descendants, both enslaved and free. Examining cases from different viceregal societies, this chapter analyzes when and why these notions came to be and how they affected the lives of populations of African origin. It is of special interest to show when the notion of race became determinant, conflating skin color, physical features, and hair type with the history, customs, and virtues or vices of human groups belonging to “superior or inferior races,” and its relationship with slavery.