Racial Terminology

Researching Your Family in Spanish Records

• Castas in Spanish Records
• Racial Classifications in U.S. Sources

Over the years, government agencies here and abroad have developed their own racial classification systems, often partially borrowed from earlier systems. One such list was the List of Races or Peoples devised by the Immigration Service on Ellis Island in 1898, revised in 1936 and again in 1940. Eligibility for citizenship was drawn from the definitions therein.

Castas in Spanish Genealogical Records

In colonial Spanish America, civil rights and responsibilities were based directly on the degree of European blood that a person had. Consequently, racial classifications were highly elaborated, and minor distinctions in ancestry were carefully recorded.

While these terms have highly precise definitions, in actual practice they were often used based on impressions of skin color rather than definite knowledge of ancestry. Lighter colored blacks, for example, often were classified as trigueño or "wheat colored," a vague term based entirely upon skin color with no reference to racial ancestry. Additionally, when racial distinctions were made, they may have been determined by the individuals present or arbitrarily by the priest or official recording the information.

You will frequently run across these racial designations in Catholic parish registers and such government documents as censuses. These classifications, or castes, were immortalized in the eighteenth-century Spanish American genre of painting known as La pintura de castas [Caste Painting].

A small local museum in Natchez (National Museum of African American History and Culture), offers a wonderful growing art exhibit of Pintura de Castas that depicts the racial classifications, or castes, that existed in Colonial Mexico. Each scene portrays a man and woman of different races with one or two of their children and is accompanied by an inscription that identifies the racial mix depicted. (I put some pics online.)

The following table defines some of the terms you are likely to run across in a search of Spanish records.

* The meaning of some of these terms may vary in some Spanish-speaking countries.

Translating Spanish Records

Castas in Spanish Genealogical Records Classification Racial Composition Albarazado Cambujo and Mulato Albino Spanish and Morisco Allí te estás Chamizo and Mestizo Barcino Albarazado and Mulato Barnocino Albarazado and Mestizo Calpamulato Zambaigo and Lobo Cambujo Indian (¾) and Negro (¼) Cambur Negro (½), Spanish (¼), and Indian (¼) Castizo In Puerto Rico: Spanish and Mestizo. In Guatemala: Spanish and Indian (1/128) Chamizo Coyote and Indian Chino In Peru: Mulato and Indian Cholo In Peru: Mestizo and Indian Cimarrón In Mexico and Guatemala: Negro (½), Spanish (¼), and Indian (¼) Coyote Spanish (½), Indian (3/8), and Negro (1/8) Cuarteado Spanish (½), Indian (¼), and Negro (¼) Cuarterón Spanish (¾) and Negro (¼) Cuarterón de Chino In Peru: Spanish and Chino Cuarterón de Mestize In Peru: Spanish and Mestizo Cuarterón de Mulato In Peru: Spanish and Mulato Cuatrero Indian (¾) and Spanish (¼) Español Spanish Español Criollo Colonial-born Spaniard Indio Indian Jíbaro, Jabaro Lobo and Salta atrás Ladino Spanish (¾) and Indian (¼) Lobo Indian (¾) and Negro (¼) Mestizo Spanish (½) and Indian (½) Moreno Spanish (½), Indian (¼), and Negro (¼) Morisco Spanish and Mulato. In Spain: a baptized Moor Mulato Spanish (½) and Negro (½). In Chile and Colombia: can also be Indian and Negro Negro African Black Negro fino Negro (¾) and Spanish (¼) No te entiende Tente en el aire and Mulato No me toques Mixture of Spanish, Indian, and Negro Ochavado Spanish (7/8) and Negro (1/8) Pardo Indian (½), Spanish (¼), and Negro (¼) Prieto Negro (7/8) and Spanish (1/8) Quartarón See Cuarterón Quinterón In Peru: Spanish and Cuarterón Requinterón In Peru: Spanish and Quinterón Salta atrás Spanish and Albino Tente en el aire Calpamulato and Cambujo Torna atrás No te entiende and Indian Tresalvo Spanish (¾) and Negro (¼) Zambaigo Spanish and Chino Zambo In Peru: Negro and Mulato. In Venezuela: Indian (½) and Negro (½) Zambo de Indio In Peru: Negro (½) and Indian (½)

Racial Classifications in U.S. Sources

Not all of the above terms were in use in early U.S. sources. Even when the terms were used, definitions differed widely and did not take into consideration the nuances of Spanish ancestry implied by these terms in Spanish records. Professor John Nitti of the University of Wisconsin's Medieval Spanish Dictionary Project is quoted as saying:

 . . .  the word "mulato" initially meant a racial mixture of any sort. Offspring of Spaniards and Moors were known as "mulatos" in medieval Iberia, as were later mixtures between blacks and Indians, and between Frenchmen and Indians. Eventually "mulato" came to mean specifically a mixture between a black and a white. "Mulato" appears in New Mexican church records, though there is no evidence that the individuals classed as such had any black African ancestry. - Gutierrez

1880 USA Census Classifications Black 3/4 or more African Mulatto 3/8 to 5/8 black Quadroon 1/4 black Octoroon 1/8 or trace of black

By 1920, the U.S. census categories changed, eliminating the quadroon and octoroon classifications. The category mulatto was broadened to include anyone with a trace of black ancestry.

The following table reflects contemporary usage of these terms in the U.S.
Biracial:	Of, for, or consisting of members of two races or combining two races.
Colored:	A person of a racial group not regarded as white. A person of mixed racial strains.
Creole:	1.)  A person of mixed Black and European ancestry who speaks a creolized language, especially one based on French or Spanish.  2.)  A Black slave born in the Americas as opposed to one brought from Africa.
Eurafrican:	Of European and African descent. Relating to or coming from Europe and Africa; a person of mixed European and African descent.
Griffe:	A person of mixed negro and American Indian blood. The offspring of a mulatto woman and a negro; also, a mulatto.
Half-Breed:	Offensive. The offspring of parents of different races, A person having parents of different ethnic types.
Half-Caste:	Offensive. A person of mixed racial descent. One born of a European parent on the one side, and of a Hindu or Muslim on the other.  Also in Austrailia, one born of a white parent and an Aboriginal parent.
Hapa:	Native Hawaiians used this word to describe someone who was "half Hawaiian". In colonial times, it was often combined with the word "haole" which meant stranger, foreigner, or white person. As time passed, "hapa" was used on the Continental United States by Japanese Americans and other Asian to describe a person of partial Asian ancestry. Many Nisei - second generation Japanese Americans) considered the term to be derogatory. Today, "Hapa" is simply accepted as a way to describe a person of partial Asian ancestry.
Metisse:	1.)  The offspring of a white person and an American Indian.  2.)  The offspring of a white person and a quadroon; an octoroon.
Mestizo:	A person of mixed racial ancestry, especially of mixed European and Native American ancestry.  n., pl. mes·ti·zos or mes·ti·zoes. ETYMOLOGY: Spanish, mixed, mestizo, from Old Spanish, mixed, from Late Latin mixticius, from Latin mixtus past participle of miscere, to mix.
Multiracial:	Made up of, involving, or acting on behalf of various races.
Interracial:	Relating to, involving, or representing different races; involving or existing between two or more races; involving or composed of different races.
Zambo:	The child of a Mulatto and a Black person; also, the child of an Indian and a Black Person. Also Sambo.
(Source: mixedfolks.com)

 

Contemporary controversies over racial classification systems still employed by the U.S. Census Bureau and the INS testify to the legacy of centuries of racial classification, and the difficulties of the U.S. in dealing with the reality of racially mixed citizens and immigrants. Most classification schemes today are intended as tools to describe a population, yet the schemes themselves are largely products of our history.

The widely adopted racial concept Hispanic, generally understood to include anyone with ancestors from a Spanish-speaking country, blurs ancestral heritage, family and personal identity.

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