After the conquest of Mesoamerica, Spain set up a social structure with power concentrated through a hierarchy. A vague word called race played an enormous impact on social structure in Mexico. A person 's race was determined by the Spaniards who were in control and used their definition of race to project labels on people. Based on these labels, a Spanish social structure was formed. The organization of society was clearly defined in the 1500’s, but by the mid-1600’s mixture of different races produced new groups of people, which needed new racial identities. After a hundred years, it became difficult to distinguish peoples raced based on heredity. This caused interracial babies to be born in Mexico. Spanish society evolved over two hundred
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This caused greater stress on determining a person 's race, which in turn put pressure on Mexican society, that was created based on race. Priests would decide what race a newborn baby was when the parents took the baby to be baptized. In the 1600’s priest would typically balance judgment between what the parents said, and what the priests own beliefs were, which was based on physical characteristics of the baby. This occurred if the family was unable to obtain documents proving the babies lineage, “most elite families could trace their ancestry back for several generations. The Spanish, therefore, stressed skin color as a guide to racial status among commoners. When documentation could not be obtained, or a verdict be reached, the priest would seek out the opinions of neighbors, friends and families. Judgment between these various groups was based on physical appearance. Yet there were other factors, “the social race of an individual was related to the combination of physical appearance, economic status, occupation, and family connections, in other words, to his overall socioeconomic position as well as to physical features.” The Spanish definition of race evolved from strictly being based on heritage, into more of a social basis. Spaniards could not accurately determine what heretical race newborn babies descended from; therefore, people in Mexico adapted by allowing social influences to play a role in determining the race of a
This caused greater stress on determining a person 's race, which in turn put pressure on Mexican society, that was created based on race. Priests would decide what race a newborn baby was when the parents took the baby to be baptized. In the 1600’s priest would typically balance judgment between what the parents said, and what the priests own beliefs were, which was based on physical characteristics of the baby. This occurred if the family was unable to obtain documents proving the babies lineage, “most elite families could trace their ancestry back for several generations. The Spanish, therefore, stressed skin color as a guide to racial status among commoners. When documentation could not be obtained, or a verdict be reached, the priest would seek out the opinions of neighbors, friends and families. Judgment between these various groups was based on physical appearance. Yet there were other factors, “the social race of an individual was related to the combination of physical appearance, economic status, occupation, and family connections, in other words, to his overall socioeconomic position as well as to physical features.” The Spanish definition of race evolved from strictly being based on heritage, into more of a social basis. Spaniards could not accurately determine what heretical race newborn babies descended from; therefore, people in Mexico adapted by allowing social influences to play a role in determining the race of a