While all humans across the globe belong to the same biological race, nations have for thousands of years created artificial divisions in society along ethnic lines as a way to establish race-based social hierarchies. During the time of the Spanish Empire, painters created a series of paintings known as Castas meant to reinforce those divisions as defined by the Spanish Empire to keep the powerful at the top of the social order and the victims of that colonization at the bottom. During Spain's colonial era, Peninsulares (those born in Europe) were the highest class, Creollos (those born in the colonies, but with European heritage), were in the middle, and Indios (indigenous peoples) were at the bottom- but there were several ways in which individuals could be a blend of ethnic groups- as depicted in the complex depictions of colonial social order in the castas.
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