A
Casta (, ) was a hierarchical system of race classification created by
Spanish elites
(españoles) in
Hispanic America during the
Spanish colonial period. The
sistema de castas or the
sociedad de castas was used in 17th and 18th centuries in
Spanish America and
Spanish Philippines to describe as a whole and socially rank the
mixed-race people who were born during the
post-Conquest period. These unions produced in the process known as
mestizaje. A parallel system of categorization based on the degree of acculturation to
Hispanic culture, which distinguished between
gente de razón (Hispanics) and
gente sin razón (non-acculturated natives), concurrently existed and supported the idea of
casta.