Caste, Race, and the Formation of Latin American Cultural Imaginaries

Abstract

The chapter presents socio-racial dynamics as a major theme and even an organizing axis in paradigmatic Latin American cultural artifacts, like artworks and literary works. Though race appears as a problematic or a theme in cultural expressions of other imperial/colonial contexts, the essay looks at how in latin America race appears in a situated, locally specific way. This perspective demands a postcolonial understanding of race, that is, in relation with colonial caste society and relations, including cultural manifestations like casta painting. From the perspective of coloniality and cultural imaginaries, casta painting marks a point of inflection in how race weaves in with cultural imaginaries and power relations. In this sense, while one could analyze the genre as creating, circulating, and reifying racial categories, one could also inquire into commonplaces and themes it set off in the formation of the dominant criollo colonial cultural imaginary, especially those where raza, casta, gender, and sexuality intersect and give way to social power dynamics. Thus, casta representations, in paintings, literature, songs, performances, and so on, can be seen as actual cultural devices that aid in modulating Latin American racial formation projects.