Sistema de castas
Andrés de Islas, 1774

To the reader: please do not take offense at the terminology below. This terminology is clearly racist, and should be insulting to many, many people. This terminology is here as it is a record of how people were viewed.

Aside from terminology, members of each "casta" were more or less distinguishable by their dress. Sumptuary laws specified dress that would be illigal for members of specific castas to wear. Other ways in which the castas were distinguished were as follows: ¹

• "The viceroy of Peru during the eighteenth century received visitors in two rooms, one for whites, another for Indians and mixed-bloods"
• "... the whites went to mass in the cathedral, the pardos to another church, and the Negroes to a third." Note: The use of different churches by different "castas" may be seen in the Brazilian film Xica da Silva.
• "... the elementary school in Buenos aires was strictly discriminatory. The teacher should teach only white and Indian children to read and write, whereas mestizos and mulattoes should be instructed only in Christian dogma, and the groups were to be kept apart when the teacher brought them to public functions."
• cofradías (religious brotherhoods) and consulados, and universities, guilds, etc. were also limited to specific castas.

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