I found this reading very interesting right from the start. The fact that Catalina was only raised with her family until the age of four was very surprising to me, as she was then sent to the convent to begin her training as a nun. This caused her to have absolutely no relationship with her family, especially her parents, as is revealed later in the passage. When she sees her father after leaving the convent, Catalina seems to have no emotional feelings towards him, which is understandable as she hardly ever knew him. Later, when Catalina goes back to the Convent to go to a mass an sees her mother, it is clear her mother looks right at her but does not recognize her own daughter.After Catalina left the convent, she was extremely fortunate in the people whom she met, as don Francisco de Carralta welcomed her into his home immediately, without even knowing she was in relation to his wife. This is a story od tremendous courage and self-belief, as Catalina made the decision to masquerade as a man an managed to keep this choice a secret until she told other herself.
The Casta paintings were fascinating in the fact of the negative views on them in the 17th century, but all of this disappeared by the 18th century, an they became coveted and people would be willing to pay large sums of money in order to obtain one. The controversy in these paintings trailed back to the fact of the mixed race couples with mixed children. Back in Spain, the indigenous people were still thought of as inferior to them. The painting show a different view of the people, as they appear to be in urban setting, well dressed, and in some cases working different sorts of jobs. This would defy the European view, and cause them to worry that they may not be able to control the indigenous people as they had previously hoped.
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