In the Casta painting, there is a man and woman with a child in the painting with the inscription "Espanol con Mora Mulato." The man is a fair-skinned Spaniard and the woman is a dark-skinned black woman. Their child is also dark-skinned. The family seems happy in the painting and the man has a smile on his face and a hand on the child's shoulder. This portrayal of a mixed race family is challenged by the novel The Murmur of Bees. In the passage where Nana Reja nurses the Morales' baby, Mr. Morales is shocked by her dark skin and comments on it. This asserts that dark-skinned people are out of the ordinary and are not widely accepted in the town Nana Reja goes to. This contrasts the Casta painting where the family is open and happy about their blended races.
source:
Unknown. “Casta Painting.” THE AMERICAN YAWP, www.americanyawp.com/text/casta-painting/.