This Casta painting by Miguel Cabrera illustrates the stark contrast between skin color/race. The characters in the painting are of similar, higher social standing depicted by their clothes. The different races are clearly integrated and friendly with one another. This portrayal is challenged by the novel, The Murmer of Bees, in which division does exit between classes and races, those with darker and lighter skin. We see this division in Nana Reja's interactions (or lack of) with the other characters in the novel thus far. People tend to keep their distance and don't associate with her or Simonopio. In the section covering the Spanish Flu epidemic in The Murmer of Bees, Segovia highlights that despite social divisions, we are all equal in death.
Work Cited
Miguel Cabrera. "Pintura de Castas", 9. De negro e India - China Cambuja. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?search=Casta+Paintings&title=Special:Search&go=Go&ns0=1&ns6=1&ns12=1&ns14=1&ns100=1&ns106=1#/media/File:Castas_09chinacambuja_max.jpg
(This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office before January 1, 1925.)