Birth of the Mestizo

In the book I read about the Incas and Aztecs empire being taken over by the Spanish. The Spaniards were at the top they were the land owners, while the Incas and Aztecs became the workers. However the Spaniards would sometimes rape the Indians and the Indian women would than have a child both Indian and Spanish. They were mestizos, a mixed race. I decided to do some research on them. What were some social problems they faced? And what was there status in society?

I found a website page called "The Construction and Function of Race: Creating the Mestizo" as mentioned in the book some of the Indian women were married to Spanish men but many of the mestizos were born because of rape. The mestizo race was a very delicate race they were either brought up by the father or mother it was very rare for both. The father would be the one to decide if the child was legitimate or illegitimate. When a boy was taken in by the father, the child would either be educated along with the children of the wife or he would be sent to Spain to be educated with the fathers' family. However when he was older, he might of not been given any inheritance or sometimes if he was the only son he would take the property and unofficially control it since they weren't able to own property legally. The mestizo girls however had it a bit more easier, they weren't needed to hold property. Instead they were used to create alliances or even if they did marry, they were married to a decent Spanish man such as a merchant or artisan. Nevertheless, there was still tension between mestizo children and their fathers' wife. But because Spanish people had a strong sense of family lineage they would bring the child in. Also the idea of the child being raised by the inferior race was not liked so instead they would bring them up. Or even if they were brought up by their mothers' the Spanish would still see them as lesser. At the beginning there wasn't any mestizo marriages because most young ladies would marry older men and since the mestizo race was young there were no older men. As you can see the mestizo race had a lot of tension coming from both the Indians and Spanish. They were never fully accepted on either side.