Torna atrás () or Tornatrás is a term once used in 18th century ''

Casta () is a term which means "lineage" in Spanish and Portuguese and has historically been used as a racial and social identifier. In the context of the Spanish America, Spanish Empire in the Americas it also refers to a now-discredited 20th-centu ...

'' paintings to portray a mixed-race person (

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 ...

) who showed

phenotypic In genetics, the phenotype () is the set of observable characteristics or traits of an organism. The term covers the organism's morphology or physical form and structure, its developmental processes, its biochemical and physiological proper ...

characteristics of only one of the "original races", that is, white, black, Amerindian, or Asian. The term was also used to describe an individual whose parentage was half white and half "

albino Albinism is the congenital absence of melanin in an animal or plant resulting in white hair, feathers, scales and skin and pink or blue eyes. Individuals with the condition are referred to as albino. Varied use and interpretation of the term ...

Colonial Spanish America

The term ''torna atrás'' (in English, similar in meaning to "throwback" or "harken back to") could also refer to the appearance of racial characteristics not visible in the parents. An example is the child of a white person and a light-skinned person of African ancestry (''albino'') born with darker skin than their African-descended parent. The term ''torna atrás'' does not appear as a legal category in colonial documentation, but it is often shown in families portrayed in casta paintings in eighteenth-century Mexico.

Philippines

It was also used in the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

during the Spanish colonial era from the 16th to 19th century, to describe persons of mixed Austronesian (referred to as ''

Indio Indio may refer to: Places * Indio, Bovey Tracey, an historic estate in Devon, England * Indio, California, a city in Riverside County, California, United States People with the name * Indio (musician), Canadian musician Gordon Peterson * Índio, ...

''),

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

(referred to as ''Sangley''), and

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 ...

ancestry (referred to as ''Filipinos''/''Insulares'' or ''Peninsulares''). It is likely that some

Filipino people Filipinos ( tl, Mga Pilipino) are the people who are citizens of or native to the Philippines. The majority of Filipinos today come from various Austronesian ethnolinguistic groups, all typically speaking either Filipino, English and/or other ...

today would have been classified as ''Tornatrás'' under this system due to centuries of intermarriage among various foreign and indigenous ethnic groups throughout the islands.

History

Although Tornatrás was originally used to describe a descendant of

mestizos (; ; fem. ) is a term used for racial classification to refer to a person of mixed European and Indigenous American ancestry. In certain regions such as Latin America, it may also refer to people who are culturally European even though their ...

, albinos and Europeans, in the Philippines they were commonly known as those born from a Spanish father ('Filipino' or 'peninsular') and a mixed native and Chinese (mestiza de

sangley Sangley (English plural: ''Sangleys''; Spanish plural: ''Sangleyes'') and Mestizo de Sangley (Sangley mestizo, ''mestisong Sangley'', ''chino mestizo'' or Chinese mestizo) are archaic terms used in the Philippines to describe a person of pure ov ...

) mother. Most people of the Tornatrás caste in the Philippines used

as their primary language, and in many cases converted to the Catholic faith. There are no official statistics on the number of people of Tornatrás ancestry around the world. Given historical and colonial patterns, it is believed that most are to be found in South America and the Philippines.

Notes

*Should not be confused with

Albinism Albinism is the congenital absence of melanin in an animal or plant resulting in white hair, feathers, scales and skin and pink or blue eyes. Individuals with the condition are referred to as albino. Varied use and interpretation of the term ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tornatras Ethnonyms Spanish words and phrases History of the Philippines (1565–1898) Multiracial affairs * *

Colonial Spanish America

Philippines

History

See also

Notes

References