Casta painting cycles therefore typically begin with a depiction of a "pure" Spaniard with a "pure" African or Indian mate that respectively bear a mulatto or a mestizo child. From that progeny ...

Aquiles Vargas, a white aristocrat in somewhat reduced circumstances, fights with Cruz Guaregua, a humble black fisherwoman, and mother of his only son, a half-caste 'mestizo'. Vargas takes the ...