Editing Colonial mentality (section)

===Latin America===

In the overseas territories administered by the [[Spanish Empire]], [[Miscegenation|racial mixing]] between [[Spaniards|Spanish]] [[settler]]s and the [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|indigenous peoples]] resulted in a prosperous union later called [[Mestizaje|Mestizo]]. There were limitations in the racial classes only to people from African descent, this mainly for being descendants of slaves under a current state of slavery. Unlike [[Mestizo]]s, [[castizo]]s or indigenous people who were protected by the [[Laws of the Indies|Leyes de las Indias]] "to be treated like equals, as citizens of the Spanish Empire". It was completely forbidden to enslave the ''indígenas'' under the death penalty charge. 
[[File:Spanish_Empire_-_1824.jpg|left|thumb|
Spanish Empire, 1824
]]Mestizos and other mixed raced combinations were categorized into different [[casta]]s by viceroyalty administrators. This system was applied to Spanish territories in the [[New Spain|Americas]] and the [[History of the Philippines (1521–1898)|Philippines]], where large populations of mixed raced individuals made up the increasing majority of the viceroyalty population (until the present day).<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal|last=Olson|first=Christa|date=2009-10-16|title=Casta Painting and the Rhetorical Body|journal=Rhetoric Society Quarterly|volume=39|issue=4|pages=307–330|doi=10.1080/02773940902991429|s2cid=144818986|issn=0277-3945}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Lentz|first=Mark|date=2017-02-01|title=Castas, Creoles, and the Rise of a Maya Lingua Franca in Eighteenth-Century Yucatan|journal=Hispanic American Historical Review|volume=97|issue=1|pages=29–61|doi=10.1215/00182168-3727376|issn=0018-2168}}</ref>[[File:Casta painting all.jpg|thumb|Casta painting showing couples of different races arranged hierarchically,
and the resulting racial status of their children
]]
These racial categories punished those with [[List of ethnic groups of Africa|Black African]] or [[Afro-Latinos|Afro-Latin]] heritage; those of European descent were given privilege over these other mixtures. As a result of this system, people of African descent struggled to downplay their indigenous heritage and cultural trappings, in order to appear superficially more Spanish or natives.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Playing in the cathedral : music, race, and status in New Spain|last=Ramos-Kittrell|first=Jesús A.|year=2016 |isbn=978-0190236830|location=New York, NY|oclc=957615716}}</ref><ref name=":9">{{Cite book|title=Maya or mestizo?: nationalism, modernity, and its discontents|first=Ronald|last=Loewe|date=2011|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=9781442601420|location=Toronto|pages=1–5|oclc=466659990}}</ref> With these internalized prejudices individuals' choices of clothes, occupations, and forms of religious expression.<ref name=":9" /><ref>{{Cite book|title=Indians and mestizos in the "lettered city" : reshaping justice, social hierarchy, and political culture in colonial Peru|last=Dueñas|first=Alcira|date=2010|publisher=University Press of Colorado|isbn=9781607320197|location=Boulder, Colo.|oclc=664565692}}</ref> Those of mixed racial identities who wanted to receive the institutional benefits of being Spanish (such as higher educational institutions and career opportunities), could do so by suppressing their own cultures and acting with "Spanishness".<ref>{{Cite book|title=Playing in the cathedral : music, race, and status in New Spain|last=Ramos-Kittrell|first=Jesús A.|year=2016|isbn=9780190236816|location=New York, NY|pages=37–38|oclc=933580544}}</ref> This mentality lead to commonplace racial forgery in Latin America, often accompanied by legitimizing oral accounts of a Spanish ancestor and a Spanish surname. Most mixed-white and white people in Latin America have Spanish surnames inherited from Spanish ancestors, while most other Latin Americans who have Spanish names and surnames acquired them through the [[Christianization]] and [[Hispanicization]] of the indigenous and African slave populations by Spanish friars.<ref name="ytublackmamatambien">{{cite web|url=http://www.newsweek.com/id/58525?tid=relatedcl|title=Y Tu Black Mama Tambien|last=Quinonez|first=Ernesto|website=[[Newsweek]] |date=19 June 2003|access-date=2008-05-02}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06360/748295-51.stm|title=Documentary, Studies Renew Debate About Skin Color's Impact|date=26 December 2006|access-date=9 August 2010|work=Pittsburgh Post Gazette}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/race/2009/02/in-many-different-cultures-and-countries-around-the-world-skin-color-plays-a-huge-role-in-the-concept-of-beauty-lighter-ski/comments/page/2/|title=Is Light Skin Still Preferable to Dark?|date=26 February 2010|access-date=9 August 2010|work=[[Chicago Tribune]]}}</ref>

However, most initial attempts at this were only partially successful, as Amerindian groups simply blended [[Catholic Church|Catholicism]] with their traditional beliefs.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ditchfield|first=Simon|date=2004-12-01|title=Of Dancing Cardinals and Mestizo Madonnas: Reconfiguring the History of Roman Catholicism in the Early Modern Period|journal=Journal of Early Modern History|volume=8|issue=3|pages=386–408|doi=10.1163/1570065043124011|issn=1570-0658}}</ref> [[Syncretism]] between native beliefs and Christianity is still largely prevalent in Indian and Mestizo communities in Latin America.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Beatty|first=Andrew|date=2006-06-01|title=The Pope in Mexico: Syncretism in Public Ritual|journal=American Anthropologist|language=en|volume=108|issue=2|pages=324–335|doi=10.1525/aa.2006.108.2.324|issn=1548-1433}}</ref>