|
MEXICO MAGICO
TRIUMPHS and TRAGEDY... A history of the Mexican people |
Chapter VIII - Final Days - The Baroque Years 76th part. [continues.)
By Prof. German Estrada - May 2007 |
IV
Beneath the glitter lay the reality of colonialism. New Spain was a dependent society; foreign masters wielded the baton. Inside the structure of dependency was a social pyramid determined by both class and caste. At its top was a pampered elite, whose tastes were out of kilter with he rest of society, but not with the nature of New Spain, dubbed the “richest” country in the world by Humboldt. Only there was a “rich man truly a millionaire.” At the other extreme lay a sprawling lower class, literally almost caste. The elite was mainly fair of skin; the bottom, mostly dark. For the poor and the dark skin, it was virtually impossible to climb the ladder.
New Spain was a country of inequality. Nowhere, admitted Humboldt, had he found such disparities in the “distribution of wealth… and levels of civilization.” A minuscule elite possessed the good things in life; everyone else, far less. The very rich lived alongside of the very poor. Race and color of skin not always one and the same, split society further. Blancos (whites)
were better off than morenos, the dark skin.
For the highborn, priggish behavior, stylized etiquette, and fancy clothes were a hallmark of society, especially in Mexico City, the hub of the good life for the “beautiful” people. In the countryside, the landed gentry, hacendados of Brahmin cast, put on airs on the baronial estates. Ostentatious displays of wealth were the norm. To baptize a godchild one mining magnate in Dolores, a small town in Guanajuato, lavished 36,000 pesos; a rich tycoon hired a hundred coaches drawn by thoroughbred horses for the christening of his daughter; the funeral of a wealthy dignitary cost a lordly 89,000 pesos. When the daughter of a rich family took her final vows as a nun, she wore a velvet gown bedecked with dazzling jewels while the crown of flowers rested on her head.
Three types of people, by and large, made up society. Peninsulares and criollos ruled the roost; next followed the castas, primarily mestizos but also mulattos; Indians (and blacks) sat at the bottom of the social scale. At baptism, an infant was placed into one of these categories. However, since racial miscegenation had cut a swath for three centuries, the dictators of social custom could not adopt an inflexible attitude toward race. After all, unless a recent immigrant from Spain, few could prove racial purity. Many Spaniards and criollos turned out to be mestizos, fair of skin and usually well-off, while mestizos and Indians, depending on their jobs and income, were confused. Mulattoes entered into this category; the less negro or moreno, the more acceptable. The rich and snobbish liked to divide people into just two categories: la gente de razón, the Hispanic community, as they titled themselves, and, on the other side, los indios, the poor and downtrodden.
Wealth of person or family, skin color, as well as ancestry decided place in society. Color, plainly, played a major role; whiteness of skin was a key to social status. But money “whitened” the skin, confirming one’s limpieza de sangre. A hierarchical pyramid existed everywhere: for Spaniards, for criollos, for mestizos, and, as the experience of Yucatán demonstrates, for Indians. Spaniards, however, never overlooked class. Money, family tree, and color of skin dictated one’s social pedigree. No t everyone in the elite was “lily white”; light-skinned mestizos, Spanish in appearance, and even mulattoes equally “passable,” could be found at the top if they had money. The Spaniards, to underline once more, had established a pigmentocracy, with status based, to a large extent, on appearance. To be light of skin, a European characteristic, was a mark of honor and prestige; to be dark of skin, or moreno, was not.
Whites, whether peninsulares, criollos, or fair-skinned mestizos, were the “happy few.” Without a close examination of racial pedigrees, they made up , at best, no more than one-fifth of the population. Of New Spain’s 6.1 million inhabitants in 1810, just over a million were of the “white race.” According to current estimates, New Spain had between 11,000 and 14,000 peninsulares and approximately 1 million criollos, dwelling mostly in Mexico City, Guadalajara, Valladolid, and Puebla.
 |
 |
Portrait of Teodoro de Croix
|
|
Prof. Germán Estrada
E-mail: estradanav@yahoo.com
Source: From the book Triumphs and Tragedy, a History of the Mexican People by his author Ramon Eduardo Ruiz, and with his authorization. (W.W. Norton & Company. New York-London).
Prof. Germán Estrada is the author of the best selling book, México Mágico: Everything You Wanted To Know About... But Nobody Told You..." available in Puerto Vallarta at The Net House, Mail Boxes, Etc., Books, Books as well as directly from his website.
Archives by date |
Current
Weather Report
