Caballería

Caballería, a unit of land beyond the perimeter of a city (usually in Mexico) granted by the crown or its officials for the sole purpose of farming (as opposed to stock raising). Theoretically, the caballería was calculated to be large enough to provide subsistence for a caballero, a gentleman or cavalry man, and his family, in contrast to the peonía, a smaller grant of farmland deemed sufficient for a footman and his descendants. Although Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza established a standard size in 1536, in fact the caballería varied in expanse according to climate and soil quality. Some reports describe the caballería as about twice the size of the peonía. In central Mexico, an average-sized caballería, according to scholar Charles Gibson, measured 1,104 by 552 varas de castilla, or 0.024 square leagues (0.17 square miles or 105 acres).

See alsoMendoza, Antonio de .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Charles Gibson, The Aztecs Under Spanish Rule: A History of the Indians of the Valley of Mexico, 1519–1810 (1964).

Victor Westphall, Mercedes Reales: Hispanic Land Grants of the Upper Rio Grande Region (1983).

Additional Bibliography

Horn, Rebecca. Postconquest Coyoacan: Nahua-Spanish Relations in Central Mexico, 1519–1650. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1997.

Pastrana Flores, Gabriel Miguel. Historias de la Conquista: Aspectos de la historiografía de tradición náhuatl. México, D.F.: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 2004.

                                       Susan E. RamÍrez