Casta Painting As a Form of Literature - Essay Example

The majority of Americans are said to have arrived from Asia 15,000 years ago. They arrived through Beringia. After their arrival variety of different cultures and people developed. The most affected group was the red Indians who were already living in the Americas before this arrival. The European arrivals also started colonizing the Americas from the year 1492 which led to a decrease in their population due to diseases, slavery, and wars. After the foundation of the United States as a sovereign state, Native Americans were subjected to open right discrimination by government policies, one-sided treaties, and ejections.

However, what was adversely affected was their culture. Having come originally from the Indian region, the Native Americans practiced different cultures from the Europeans just like their ancestors in India. These different cultures were regarding race or even social status mostly defined by financial wellbeing. The Americas especially south America also witnessed the coming of Spanish people. The Spanish were talented regarding art. They introduced the art of painting to the Native Americans.

The Spanish conquered some sections of the United States and started ruling them. This was more so in the southern regions. To store this history, a new way of painting was discovered known as Sistema de Castas which helped to reveal the effect of the Spanish conquest on the Native Americans. With the seizure by the Spanish, a new culture of colonization developed. There was an intermixture between the colonial subjects and masters. This practice did not exist before this period. Casta painting is a form of literature that sought to cast the hierarchical system of race classification that had been created by the Spanish elites.

This practice was more exercised in the 17th and 18th centuries in the Spanish America and Spanish Philippines region. The authors sought to preserve this culture as a way of living. The creators of the paintings seem to believe that it was a good system and therefore we're offering it a platform to be showcased. This can be said to have been effective as the paintings are available until today. The artists had two objectives. First, they wanted to promote the caste system, and secondly they wanted to preserve the culture.

 With two prime objectives, it is the observation of the writer that only one objective of Casta paintings was achieved. The cultures of having castes defined by race and social standards were preserved. These paintings helped in achieving the preservation of this culture for the future generation. We are now able to observe and learn from the culture of the people living during this period. The authors of these paintings must have liked the caste system to spend their energy and time preparing the paintings.

They wanted as many people as possible to get to know the system and therefore took the effort of trying to preserve the system. They succeeded in preserving the culture however they did not manage to have many people take up the culture as it died after several years. One can also argue that the culture of segregation and discrimination did not end entirely but rather the powers of the ruler, the people high on the castes, reduced. The target audience for these paintings must have been the entire humankind.

It is not possible to describe how the text was received however by the very fact that it was preserved one can assume that it was positively received. Through these paintings, American society can learn from their history. The American people can see themselves in the mirror as they are now able to tell of their origins. Discrimination and segregation on race and social status is not something new as seen through these paintings. It has been practiced for ages, and our generation should try to do away with it as it is demeaning and the wrong way to look at another man.