User:Kstassis/sandbox

Spain, during times before colonization, demonstrates societal patterns that shaped life in Spain in terms of prejudice and discrimination. The discriminatory practice of Spanish legislation led to a certain caste system, pertaining to those with or without honor. Moreover one's reputation and the way one was treated was based on aspects such as honor, legitimacy, and the limpieza de sangre, a prejudicial marker that indicates one’s purity of blood, relating to their family timeline and deciding how society was to treat them. “Historic meanings of honor included those cultural specific ways that Spaniards had always rationalized discrimination due to defects in birth (illegitimate, nonnoble), religion (non-Catholic), and race (nonwhite).” This discriminatory institution based on these concepts of honor, limpieza, and legitimacy, is expressed through the legislation of Spanish government at the time. An example of this is was in 1414 when Pope Benedict XIII approved the constitution of Spanish College’s San Bartolomé, which linked these concepts through the school's acceptances. Those accepted into the school had to prove they had pure blood, rather than Jewish, Moorish, or heretical heritage. The concept of "limpieza de sangre," or purity of blood, was used in societies of Spain and Portugal, originating from Iberian culture, where reputation was inherited by one's ancestors. Had there been someone found to be a race such as Jewish, a converted Jewish, or Muslim in their family timeline, it was said to be a stain on their ancestry. Consequently, one's own ancestry determined their reputation and social standing, impacting other aspects such as access to education, career, and marriage for further generations. This became known as the culture of honor, which resided in such reputational ancestry that came to define how individuals were respected.

Limpieza de sangre affected life for every individual in the Spanish and Portuguese colonies, including the degree to exclusion and racial discrimination. When Europe came to colonize the "New World" these ethics of honor and limpieza de sangre implied that those with blood lacking purity to European standards was inferior. The Europeans were at the "apex" of social structure and everyone who was not identical in blood was inferior. As colonists, the presumed inferiors were the colonized and thus, due to this culture of honor, they became victims of this discrimination. While over time assimilation and miscegenation and admixture complicated this concept of social cleansing, the ideals of "purity of blood" prevailed, and elite was considered to be of European and Christian origins.

The conquest of indigenous people in Latin America strengthened these ideals. The vulnerability of one's identity in colonial America gave way to ones defense of honor, except for the elites and those in power, typically the colonists. As the degree of honor perceived by individuals was reputational, people felt the need to be confirmed by society or from those in good social standing through submission into the given standards that one's place holds. The pursuit of this honor leads to many disputes, as well as the fear of being rejected by society and losing one's place.

Despite these long-lived standards, during post colonialism, the ideals of Latin America changed with independence and the growth of democratic values. With this, the culture of honor and respect in those with pure bloodlines changed. People began to socially include those who were previously seen as inferior.