CANCELLED- The Dark Legacy of the Enlightenment: Forging Race in Spanish/Latin American Casta Painting

The Spanish and Creole anxiety towards the
increasing racial and ethnic heterogeneity in the
colonies during the eighteenth century opened the
door to one of the dark legacies of the
Enlightenment. The fear before the offspring of
mixed-race unions, and the imperial need for social
control are the basis for the development of written
and pictorial taxonomies such as the series of
cuadros de castas (1700-1821). These paintings,
alongside discussions about castas, race and
purity of blood, highlight a paradox of the
Enlightenment: the spread of ideas about human
freedom and sovereignty and modern notions of
race and racism.