When Spanish people came to the Americas and made Latin American countries into colonies, they created a caste system based on race. They came up with fifteen different categories of people based on their race mixtures, including categories like "mulatto" and "mestizo". People who were "whiter" or more "Spanish" had a higher social status than people who were "darker" or more Native American. People who were "darker" were treated as inferior and faced discrimination for example, they had to pay higher taxes than "whiter" people.