Spanish Racial Hierarchy

In Spanish colonial times criollo referred to a full-blooded Spaniard born in the Spanish colonies in Asia and the Americas. It was a term mostly used to differentiate from the peninsulares (full-blooded Spaniards born in Spain) and mestizos (persons of both Spanish and Native American or Asian ancestry).

ndios were defined as the native indigenous peoples in all the Spanish American and Asian possessions.  During the Spanish colonial period in the Mariana Islands (17th through 19th centuries) the CHamoru people were classified as indios.

Insulares was the specific term given to criollos (full-blooded Spaniards born in the colonies) born in the Philippines or the Marianas. Insulares were part of the second highest racial class in Spanish hierarchy below the peninsulares, or full-blooded Spaniards born in Europe.

During the Spanish colonial period (1668-1898), persons of mixed African and Spanish ancestry were known to the Spaniards as mulatos. They were mostly hired for labor in the Carribean and American colonies.

Two terms were used to differentiate the origin of the Spaniards residing In the 19th century colonial Philippines. A Spaniard born in Spain was referred as a peninsular, meaning born in the Spanish peninsula.

Spanish administrative term. This name is given to the primitive Indians with whom the Spaniards settled the peace agreements, although their descendants had mixed by marriage, either female Indians with male Spaniards, or female Spaniards with male Indians, or female Indians with Chinese…

During Spanish colonial rule in the Marianas, the term mestizo (mestisu in CHamoru) referred to a person of mixed parentage. In its original context, as it was used in the Philippines, the term mestizo, denoted people who were of mixed Chinese and Spanish descent.