Casta is a term which means "lineage" in Spanish and Portuguese and has historically been used as a racial and social identifier. It has been interpreted by certain historians during the 20th century to describe mixed-race individuals in New Spain were resulting from unions of Spaniards, Amerindians, and Africans. Basic mixed-race categories that appeared in official colonial documentation were mestizo, generally offspring of a Spaniard and an indigenous person; and mulato, offspring of a Spaniard and a black African. There were a plethora of terms for mixed-race persons of indigenous and African ancestry used in 18th-century casta paintings yet they are not known to have been widely used officially or unofficially in the Spanish Empire.
