casta

The institutionalized system of racial and social stratification in 17th-century Mexico.

Variety, in reference to and in names of Portugal grapes or wine.

A hierarchical system of race classification created by Spanish elites in Hispanic America during the eighteenth century.

Both of these political developments called attention to family lineage. In the Mexican colonial context, casta took on new meanings, referring to all the people of Mexico who were not of “pure” Spanish heritage.