Abstract:
This study has investigated historical documents in comparison to Miguel Cabrera’s 1763
Casta portrait series. Historiography regarding marriage in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries provides context to this study about early marriage choice and how this began to
change within the culture of the Sistema de Castas. Primary evidence was gathered from
marriage records between 1762 and 1763 from a Mexico City parish. This evidence argues that
the population of eighteenth century Mexico City did not represent realistic marriage patterns as
portrayed in Cabrera’s portraits. Further, the evidence from the Matrimonios de Castas suggests
that marriage occurred with little hindrance from Spanish colonizers and clergy. This, therefore,
acknowledges the presence of a small, patriarchal group who commissioned and viewed Casta
portraits at the time they were being created. In this regard, Casta portraits created by Miguel
Cabrera portrayed the Sistema de Castas as they had originally been intended to exist in the
private and public spheres of Mexico City by their Spanish colonizers. Therefore, the evidence
from marriage records, in comparison to Miguel Cabrera’s 1763 Casta series, proves that by the
eighteenth century marriage became a way for the Sistema de Castas to transcend the racial and
class boundaries of the colonial racial hierarchy.
