204 UNIT 2 COLONIAL MESOAMERICA
Figure 5.8 The members of Mexico City’s native cabildoreceive staffs of office, plus advice
on good leadership, from Luis de Velasco, viceroy of New Spain from 1551 to 1564. Códice
Osuna.Mexico City, Mexico: Instituto Indigenista Interamericano, 1947, p. 198.called caciquesby Spaniards who had learned this word for “chief” from the Arawaks
of the West Indies and applied it to the leaders of native communities throughout the
Spanish colonies. Within a few decades of the conquest, however, the Spaniards im-
posed a system of community government that was based on the model of town gov-
ernment in Spain.
By the mid–sixteenth century, native communities were governed by a munici-
pal council called a cabildo(Figure 5.8). The cabildoconsisted of a hierarchy of offices.
Men from the community were elected to these offices, typically for terms of one
year. In theory, all tribute-paying men of the community, that is, all married men
and widowers, had the right both to hold office and to vote in cabildoelections. In
many cases, however, the traditional ruling families managed to hold a monopoly
on the highest community offices. Similarly, elites often were able to manipulate
elections, sometimes by limiting voting rights to those who already held office, or by
allowing only members of the nobility to vote.
The most prestigious office was that of gobernador,or governor. After him came
the alcalde,or judge, of which there were one or two, followed by two to four regidores,
or councilmen. Below these there were several variously named lesser offices, whose
incumbents served as notaries, constables, policemen, wardens of the town jail,
church stewards, tribute collectors, and messengers. A municipal building, con-
structed on the town’s central plaza opposite or adjacent to the church, housed the
cabildooffices and the jail.