Pure Race and Backwardness in the Casta Paintings

In "Casta Paintings", Susan Deans-Smith is concerned about what the paintings have to say about colonial society in the 18th century. I on the other hand am more concerned about what they have to say about the events to come afterwards. What I found interesting about the casta paintings was the concept of pure race. Miranda feels threatened by the paintings, because he believes that they confirm the Spaniards assumptions that the Creole - descendants of white colonizers - are inferior to the Spaniards born in Spain. He feared the loss of power and reputation he inherently possessed under the caste system for being pure blood and white. The more white you are, the higher you are on the social hierarchy. This notion  is what provided the basis for many colonial social conceptions that were used to justify colonization and the mass killings that came with it. It was then replicated in Argentinean immigration policies, and in Hitler's goal for a pure Aryan race. We also see it internalized among rifts between people of the same race. For example, in Trinidad and Tobago, the respect you receive is contingent on how light your black skin is.

Another conception one can draw from the paintings is that of backwardness. One of the titles of the casta series is "salta atrás", meaning "a jump backwards". Backwardness implies that the group being described is stuck in the past, they aren't  "progressing" with the civilized, but rather are living like barbarians. We hear Columbus address the indigenous along these lines. He references their absence of religion, their indifference to gold, and associates their nakedness to a new born child. The latter implies that their nakedness reminded him of a state of infancy. We regard children below the age of 18 as "little people". They are human, however they are not fully human. Humans acquire their full personhood when they reach the age of maturity, 18. The same logic is used with regards to the indigenous. Their "barbaric" way of life justifies their dehumanization. And thus they are not seen as equals in the eyes of Columbus and Spaniards alike.  

It is interesting to see how these notions of purity and the civilized versus the barbaric continue to be used as tools to dehumanize and have been internalized today. Terms such as "uncivilized", "backwards", "barbaric", "them", "other" can be heard among the discourse revolving around the war on terror. The narratives that accompany them paint Muslims and the Middle East as an unknown religion and place that does not require our understanding because we consider ourselves to be more "progressive". In putting distance between us and them, makes them easier to dehumanize, stereotype, Other, and defeat.