Castizo is a racial classification used to refer to people who are three-quarters White by descent and one-quarter Amerindian. The feminine form of the word is castiza. Nowadays the term castizo also came to mean mixed-race people with light skin, in comparison to mulattos, pardos, mestizos and coyotes who would be mixed-race people with dark skin. The category was widely recognized by the 18th century in colonial Mexico and was a standard category portrayed in eighteenth-century casta paintings.