JUAN DE PAREJA WAS NOT NOT ONE OF THEM

When Velázquez included himself in the royal family portrait of the “familia real española” in Las Meninas, he did more than make fun of them by being in the portrait with them as he was not one of them and suggested to them he was not going to be one of them since he was painting them and that is how he portrayed himself with them, and with the money earned painting them, he bought the rights to a slave named Juan de Pareja who was not one of them, and then Velázquez freed Juan de Pareja and painted him in a portrait currently not owned by the previous them to whom Velázquez showed the portrait indicating that he thought in a very post feudal pre post modern way that, although the ex slave was not one of them, he could be in a portrait to be exhibited later on next to them,  dismissing them and the values expressed by them, in a portrait of Juan de Pareja without them.