ABSTRACT
In many Latin American countries, various racial terms circulated and became linked to cultural identity during the first four decades of the twentieth century, such as mestizaje, mulataje and transculturation, and hybridity and racial democracy. Socioracial dynamics appear as a theme in major Latin American cultural artifacts, like artworks and literary works, almost as an organizing axis. Though race appears as a problematic or a theme in cultural expressions of other imperial/colonial contexts, it does so in a situated, locally specific way. This chapter focuses on caste as a central and sometimes ignored aspect of the construction of race in Latin America. Because caste, caste society, caste culture, caste logic, and caste power relations need to be understood in their own complexity and specificity, the focus here will be on colonial caste society and one of its cultural expressions, the genre known as casta painting.
