Pueblos de Indios

The Pueblos de Indios were the Indian towns established by the Spanish Crown early in the colonial period to protect the native population from exploitation by Spanish and racially mixed colonists. The towns, structured much like those of the Spanish colonial towns, were laid out in a grid pattern with a central square dominated by the church and to a lesser degree the municipal buildings. The Pueblos de Indios were governed by their own town councils, with native alcaldes (chief magistrates and administrative officers), law enforcement, and other officials. The Pueblos de Indios served to incorporate the native populations into the Spanish imperial system, but they served also as a means of imperial control. Spanish colonial cities and towns with large Indian populations were required to set aside separate barrios for the Indians, and these too were administered by town councils with the traditional array of officials.

The purity of the system did not last long. From the beginning of the colonization, whites, Indians, and people of African descent mixed racially, and racially mixed spouses and children sometimes resided in the Indian towns. Over decades many of these supposedly segregated towns had become integrated, and in a way that did not always favor the needs and desires of the native population. After independence many countries abolished racial classification, and eventually the Indian towns were no longer racially exclusive habitats. Because of racial mixing, this already had become the norm in many places.

See alsoAlcalde; Alcalde Mayor.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Kinsbruner, Jay. The Colonial Spanish-American City: Urban Life in the Age of Atlantic Capitalism. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005.

Mörner, Magnus. La Corona española y los foráneos en los pueblos de indios de América, 2nd edition. Madrid: Agencia Española de Cooperacíon Internacional, Ediciones de Cultura Hispánica, 1999.

                                              Jay Kinsbruner