The Casta Paintings: Creating Race in Colonial Mexico

Photo D Espanol y Negra se produce un Mulato by Juan Rodriguez Juarez, c.1715. Taken by author at the Leicester Museum A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to visit the Leicester Museum’s special exhibition on the Casta paintings. A series of these paintings, largely painted by Juan Rodriguez Juarez around 1715, were found

The Making of Today: Miguel Hidalgo, Religion, and Society in colonial Mexico, April-June 1753

On May 8 1753 one of the key figures behind the independence of Mexico was born – Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla. Born to a criollo family and brought into the clergy, Miguel Hidalgo sat at a juncture in Mexican history. Two centuries after the Conquest a criollo population expanded and mixed with populations of peninsulares,