Without Impediment: Crossing Racial Boundaries in Colonial Mexico

On April 18, 1773, in the town of Teziutlán in the eastern mountains of Mexico, Captain don Raphael Padres participated in the baptism of his godson in the local church. He stood watching as Father Francisco Flandes leaned over the baptismal font to daub oil on the head of Joseph Philipe. As the priest performed the sacrament, reciting the script of baptism, the boy's parents, don Cristóbal Hernández and doña Isabel Pérez, followed along. After anointing the child, Father Flandes turned to the militia captain to inform him of his responsibilities as godfather, explaining the spiritual kinship that Padres now had with the boy. After the rite was completed, the priest recorded his actions in the church's book of baptisms. He noted the boy's age and that he had been legitimately born the previous day. He also listed the names of the boy, his parents, the godfather, and the godfather's wife, doña Josepha Fernández. The priest also pointed out that all the adults were españoles (of pure Spanish ancestry).

Two years later, on July 4, 1775, Captain Padres once again stood at the baptismal font in the Teziutlán church. The priest presiding over the rite this time was Pedro Francisco Gómez, and the child was five-day-old Mariana Paula. She too was legitimate, the child of Manuel Castillo and Antonia Vásquez. According to the book of baptisms, Manuel and Antonia were de razón (an abbreviation of gente de razón), which meant literally that they had the power of reason but in the eighteenth century the term was used to describe non-natives. Padres was described only as being from the local parish; no racial information was recorded. On this occasion, for some reason, the priest did not feel that it was necessary to note a casta (racial category) for young Mariana or her parents. Unlike Joseph Philipe, but like most of the other children recorded in the baptismal records of Teziutlán, Mariana had no casta listed at birth.

Such records as those for Joseph Philipe and Mariana Paula raise important questions about the role of racial identity in rural eighteenth-century Mexico.¹ For colonial Mexicans, one's racial category was central to one's identity. However, rather than a fixed representation of biological parentage, casta identity could be fluid in both its definition and its influence in a person's life. Casta could be an exclusive or inclusive identification, and casta distinctions could be manipulated to accommodate varying circumstances. For some, like Joseph Philipe, racial identity was clearly ascribed at birth. But for others, like Mariana Paula, racial identity had to wait. It is likely that her racial category—her title within the Spanish colonial racial schema known as the sistema de castas—would not be recorded until years later, when she married. At that point in their respective lives, both Mariana and Joseph Philipe would unquestionably have their casta identities recorded on their marriage applications.

This study finds that in eighteenth-century Teziutlán race was a form of identity that matured with an individual and was much more than the product of his or her ancestry. Further, the demographics of a given community shaped how racial descriptors within the sistema de castas influenced marriage choice. We find that in Teziutlán mestizos and non-elite Spaniards regularly crossed racial boundaries, demonstrating that in this town certain casta groups were not bound by a rigid racial hierarchy.²

This study is based on data collected from baptismal, marriage, and interment records from the latter part of the eighteenth century. By exploring demographic data and focusing particularly on marriage patterns, we find that even though the ingrained racial values of the sistema de castas formed a significant part of rural Mexican identity, the demographic constraints imposed by relatively small populations led to a weakening of mores against miscegenation. Thus, the sistema de castas as a mechanism of social control was strongest among those who propagated it (Spaniards) and those most protected by it...