alice wissing wrote:

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Alberto,

 

There is a table in the book "Governance & Society in
Colonial Mexico - Chihuahua in the Eighteenth Century" that contains
the number of baptisms occurring in El Sagrario Parish broken down by
race.  In 1780 there were 66 mulatos, and in 1790 there were 0.  It's
as if they disappeared during a decade.

One thing I've noticed and seem to think it had reference to the
struggle for Independance from Spain. . . But at a certain time period
the records in Jalisco seem to stop indicating people by race. Those
that were mestizo, mulato, espanol, indio etc are seen in the records
as just people. I'm not sure of the date but somewhere in the early
1800's this absence of referring to race occured. Maybe what you are
seeing is a gradual move from the "importance" of establishing race to
the more politically correct or "preference" of the people to not have
race play such an important part. Just a thought.

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One thing we can be certain about, it was not socially and
economically advantageous for our ancestors to identify themselves as
mulatos.  Maybe the priests realized that and gradually phased out
using the term.  

Joseph, if you're out there, many years ago I tried telling a
"sister" I worked with how I thought I was black because of my frizzy
hair, and it really annoyed her.  A word of advice to everyone:  Be
careful about flaunting your newfound heritage around blacks - they
could think you are ridiculing them.

I understand what you are saying but I wouldn't dream of sharing that
without the proof of a DNA study. Its not like I show them the records
first but I make reference to them as my evidence.

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Alice