G–4 GLOSSARY
groups that are offi cially licensed by the state.
SeeSocial corporatism and State corporatism.Corregidor A royal governor of a district. A
corregidor de indios administered indigenous
pueblos.
Corregimiento The jurisdiction governed by a
corregidor.
Cortes The Spanish parliament.
Côrtes The Portuguese parliament.
Creoleor criollo An American-born Spaniard in
the Spanish colonies, a designation typically as-
sociated with whiteness and land ownership in
a republican Latin America divided by race and
class.
Cuenta Audit process by which Spanish impe-
rial auditors, who distrusted local creole cor-
regidores, independently tracked the number of
indigenous people forced to pay tribute to the
crown.
Cumbe In Spanish America, the name given to
communities composed of African peoples who
had escaped enslavement and established settle-
ments independent of Spanish royal control.
Cumbiaor cumbia andina An infl uential musi-
cal genre born of Colombia’s Atlantic coast,
drawing upon the traditional West African
cumbe dance and combining Spanish melodies
with African rhythms and indigenous Ameri-
can harmonies.
Curaca The Hispanicized spelling of a Quechua
word,kuraka, that identifi ed a hereditary chief
or ruler in ancient or colonial Peru.
Deism A political philosophy that recognizes the
existence of God but subordinates public policy
decision making to the rational application of
natural law.
Descamisados Literally “shirtless,” this refers to
the impoverished but politically active Argen-
tine workers who adored Evita Perón and pro-
vided her husband Juan with his political base.
Development A process through which a nation
maximizes the distribution of its resources to
enhance the quality of life for the greatest num-
ber of its citizens. Development typically is meas-
ured against standards that include poverty
reduction, literacy rates, access to health care,
infant mortality rates, life expectancy, potable
water, sanitation disposal, housing, and per
capita income.
Ejidatarios A member of a community that
owned lands in common.
Ejido Commonly owned lands, customarily
farmed collectively by indigenous communities.
Encomendero The holder of an encomienda.
Encomienda An assignment of indígenas who
were to serve the Spanish grantee with tribute
and labor; also, the area belonging to indig-
enous people so granted.
Encuentro Controversial term originally de-
signed to eliminate the ethnocentric idea of a
European “discovery” of the Americas, it also
effectively sanitizes the violent, brutal history of
European invasion and conquest.
Enganchador Literally “one who hooks or en-
snares,” referring to individuals who act as
labor contractors to recruit desperate workers
by coercion or deceit.
Enganche Literally “the hook,” refers to a sys-
tem of labor coercion based on physical force or
fraud that deprives workers of their freedom.
Estado de excepción Literally “State of Excep-
tion,” this is a legal status that preserves the
rhetorical veneer of constitutional government
even as it routinely violates the civil liberties of
workers and other political opponents.
Estancias Literally “estates,” this refers to the
large cattle ranches that monopolized land,
transformed the Argentine pampas, and ren-
dered Argentina dependent on beef exports.
Estancieros The Argentine oligarchy that owned
large cattle ranches and dominated political,
economic, and cultural life in the nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries.
Favelas Urban shantytowns in Brazil, composed
of irregular, poorly constructed housing, typi-
cally located illegally on public or private lands
that surround major cities.
Fazenda A large estate (Brazil).