''Lobo'' ( fem. ''Loba'') (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

for "wolf") is a racial category for a mixed-race person used in Mexican paintings illustrating the caste (''casta'') system in 17th- and 18th-century

Spanish America Spanish America refers to the Spanish territories in the Americas during the Spanish colonization of the Americas. The term "Spanish America" was specifically used during the territories' Spanish Empire, imperial era between 15th century, 15th ...

Definitions

''Lobo'' does not have a fixed meaning, with possible parents being a black man and an Indian woman, a ''Cambujo'' (African/Amerindian) and an Indian woman, a ''

Torna atrás Torna atrás () or Tornatrás is a term once used in 18th century ''Casta'' paintings to portray a mixed-race person (mestizaje, mestizo) who showed phenotypic characteristics of only one of the "original races", that is, white, black, Amerindian, ...

'' and an Indian woman, a

Mestizo (; ; fem. ) is a term used for racial classification to refer to a person of mixed Ethnic groups in Europe, European and Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous American ancestry. In certain regions such as Latin America, it may also r ...

and an Indian woman, or a ''Salta atrás'' (of African/European ancestry) and a

Mulatto (, ) is a racial classification to refer to people of mixed African and European ancestry. Its use is considered outdated and offensive in several languages, including English and Dutch, whereas in languages such as Spanish and Portuguese is ...

woman. ''Lobo'' was a classification used in official colonial documentation, including the

Inquisition The Inquisition was a group of institutions within the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy, conducting trials of suspected heretics. Studies of the records have found that the overwhelming majority of sentences consisted of penances, ...

trials, marriage registers and censuses. One example of a Loba is a mixed-race woman who came before the

Mexican Inquisition The Mexican Inquisition was an extension of the Spanish Inquisition into New Spain. The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire was not only a political event for the Spanish, but a religious event as well. In the early 16th century, the Reformati ...

; she had been given multiple racial labels. She was publicly known as a ''China'', was known to be a ''parda'' (a brown-skinned person), who "looked like a ''loba''", suggesting she had visible African features. There were regional differences in colonial Mexico for racial labeling. For instance, in

Xichú Xichú is a Mexican city (and municipality) located in the Northeast region of the state of Guanajuato. The municipality is entirely within the Sierra Gorda range and has an area of 912.20 square kilometres (3.0% of the surface of the state). It ...

and Casas Viejas, in the

Bajío El Bajío (the ''lowland'') is a cultural and geographical region within the central Mexican plateau which roughly spans from north-west of the Mexico City metropolitan area to the main silver mines in the northern-central part of the country. Thi ...

region near

Querétaro Querétaro (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Querétaro ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Querétaro, links=no; Otomi language, Otomi: ''Hyodi Ndämxei''), is one of the Political divisions of Mexico, 32 federal entities of Mexico. I ...

and the

Sierra Gorda The Sierra Gorda () is an ecological region centered on the northern third of the Mexican state of Querétaro and extending into the neighboring states of Guanajuato, Hidalgo and San Luis Potosí. Within Querétaro, the ecosystem extends from ...

mountains, where there were resident indigenous populations, as well as blacks and mulattos, locally the people used ''lobos'' as a "normative category". In his examination of marriage patterns from marital registers, Vinson found no records of ''lobos'' marrying each other; brides and grooms thus classified chose partners from other racial categories. In eighteenth-century casta paintings, ''lobos'' are usually shown doing physical work and not lavishly dressed, indicating lower class status. In Joaquín Antonio de Basarás's ''Origen, costumbres, y estado presente de mexicanos y philipinos'' (1763), the ''lobo'' father is a water carrier, while his Indian wife sells chickens. An early 18th-century set of casta paintings shows the ''Lobo'' as the offspring of a Black father and Indigenous mother; in the same set, a Lobo father and an India mother have a dark-skinned child labeled a ''Lobo Torna atrás'', meaning the child more closely resembled the Black father.García Saiz, ‘’Las Castas Mexicanas’’, pp. 58, 59. BMVB - anònim -

A set of casta paintings by Andrés de Islas is typical in the order and combinations of races: *De Español e India, ''Mestizo'' (European white and Indian woman,

) *De Español y Mestiza, ''Castizo'' (European white and Mestiza,

Castizo ''Castizo''Pronunciation in Latin American Spanish: is a racial category used in 18th-century Colonial Mexico to refer to people who were three-quarters Spanish by descent and one-quarter Amerindian. The feminine form of the word is ''castiza' ...

, 3/4 white) *De Castizo y Española, ''Española'' (Castizo and Spanish woman, the girl child can be classified as Spanish, 7/8 white) *De Español y Negra, ''Mulata'' (Spaniard and black woman,

Mulatta (, ) is a racial classification to refer to people of mixed African and European ancestry. Its use is considered outdated and offensive in several languages, including English and Dutch, whereas in languages such as Spanish and Portuguese i ...

) *De Español y Mulata, ''

Morisco Moriscos (, ; pt, mouriscos ; Spanish for "Moorish") were former Muslims and their descendants whom the Roman Catholic church and the Spanish Crown commanded to convert to Christianity or face compulsory exile after Spain outlawed the open p ...

'' (Spaniard and Mulatta, Morisco; mixed-race person of part African/European ancestry) *De Español y Morisca, ''Albino'' (Spaniard and Morisca, ''Albino''; the child appears Spanish or European but is known to have part African ancestry) *De Español y Albina,

(Spaniard and ''Albina'', ''

; the child has visible African features, considered a "throw back" to blackness) *De Indio y Negra, ''Lobo'' (Indian man, black woman) *De Indio y Mestiza, ''Coyote'' *De Lobo y Negra, ''Chino'' *De Chino e India, ''Cambujo'' (a mixed-race person of part African and mostly Indian ancestry) *De Cambujo e India, ''Tente en el aire'' ("tint in the air", related to some African ancestry) *De Tente en el aire y Mulata, ''Albarazado'' (white lepers, pallid) *De Albarazado e India, ''Barcino'' (ginger) *De Barcino y Cambuja, ''Calpamulato'' *Indios Mecos bárbaros ("barbarian" Meco Indians)

References

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Definitions

See also

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Further reading