Today in my docent painting I learned about a type of painting in
New Spain (Colonial Mexico) called Casta Painting. At that time
Mexico had a large number of casts or levels of privilege. There
was also large amount of inter-racial marriages. Casta Paintings
were a way of documenting the practice and identifying the cast
or race of the offspring of the mixed coupling. This site has a
description of Casta Painting and links to various examples:
http://www.college.emory.edu/culpeper/BAKEWELL/thinksheets/castas.html
When the North Americans came down the Santa Fe trail, the citizens of
what is now New Mexico could not understand the "norte americanos"
strange strict restrictions about race. These Casta Paintings may
give teachers some unique resources to incorporate in multi-cultural
education. What do you think ?
Woody
Woody, Retired in Albuquerque
mailto:woodyduncan@comcast.net
35 Quality Middle School Art Lessons
in powerpoint format, on one CD $17 (includes shipping)
http://www.taospaint.com/QualityLessons.html
Ordering Address: PO Box 91703
Albuquerque, NM 87199-1703
“The function of the overwhelming majority of your artwork
is simply to teach you how to make the small fraction
of your artwork that soars.” from: “Art & Fear”
