Latin America is a richly diverse 'contact zone' (Buscaglia, 2003; LaóMontes; Pratts, 1992) of cultural and sexual connections wherein, from the sixteenth century, ethnic-racial labels and classifications proliferated, maturing by the eighteenth century to what came to be known as the casta system, a classificatory scheme serving as a framework for the development of a diverse, yet not entirely consistent, repertoire of human types based on different mixtures or paths of mestizaje. ${ }^{13}$ Common nomenclatures seen in eighteenth-century casta paintings, especially in colonial viceroyal centres, such as Peru and Mexico, were mulato, used to refer to a person of mixed negra and blanco parentage, mestizo, used to refer to a person of mixed india and blanco parentage, and zambo, used to refer to a person of mixed negro and india parentage. The combinations and permutations of casta classifications became much more diverse, the plurality of types yielding a relatively large variety of ethnic-racial labels that developed  
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[^0]:    12 The fascinating story of Juan Latino, a formerly enslaved subject born in Ethiopia who eventually became professor of Latin grammar and poetry at the University of Granada in the mid-sixteenth century, has been the subject of much research. See, in particular, Molinari's work.
13 The Spanish word mestizaje denotes a concept that suggests positive ways of understanding ethnic-racial mixtures. We cannot explore its multiple meanings and diverse political and epistemic values here. Two particularly helpful accounts are provided by Miller and de la Cadena.