GLOSSARY G–7
emerged during the reconquest of Iberia and
identifi ed Spanish or Portuguese Christians,
whose purity was not compromised by contact
with Jews, Muslims, Africans, or indigenous
peoples in colonial Latin America.Llaneros The mixed race inhabitants of the lla-
nos, who defended their individual liberty both
against Spanish colonialism and Spanish Amer-
ican creole aristocracy.
Llanos The fl at plains in northern South Amer-
ica that were the agricultural heartland of Gran
Colombia.
Macehualtín In the Aztec social class hierarchy,
this described commoners who performed trib-
ute, labor, and military services for the Aztec
state.
Magical realism This describes an artistic tradi-
tion in Latin America that dramatizes an often
oppressive physical reality by also portray-
ing highly subjective human perceptions of it,
which include emotion, fantasy, and myth.
Mambises Nineteenth-century Cuban guerrilla
soldiers who fought for political independence
and racial justice in integrated battalions, often
under the command of black offi cers.
Mandamiento A system of coerced indigenous
labor.
Maquiladora Mostly foreign-owned sweatshops
in Latin America, they enjoy tax and tariff ad-
vantages that allow them to hire low-wage,
mostly female Latin American workers to as-
semble duty-free imported parts into fi nished
products, which are then reexported to the
United States, Europe, or Japan.
Maroons Africans or their descendants in the
Americas, who escaped European enslavement
to establish autonomous communities, usually
rooted in African cultural traditions, in the re-
mote interior.
Mayeque A tenant farmer or serf on the estate of
a noble family in ancient Mexico.
Mayorazgo An entailed estate.
Mazombo A person born of Portuguese parents
in the Americas, similar to the Spanish creole.
Mestizaje A counterhegemonic developmental
ideology that, in contrast to doctrines of white
supremacy, celebrated the mixed-race nature of
Latin American civilization but simultaneously
endorsed “whitening” even as it scorned auton-
omous indigenous and African cultures.
Mestizo A person of mixed indigenous and Span-
ish descent.
Millenarianism The medieval doctrine, based on
a prophecy in the Book of Revelation and widely
held by the reformed clergy, that Christ would
return to earth to reign for a thousand years of
peace and righteousness, to be followed by the
Last Judgment at the end of the world.
Milpas The subsistence plots on which peasants
and indigenous communities depended to pro-
duce their survival.
Minga A free indigenous miner in colonial Peru.
Minifundio A system of land tenure characterized
by the division of large estates into small parcels
distributed among many peasant proprietors,
which typically rendered them less productive
and shifted production away from commercial
crops.
Mita In colonial Peru, the periodic conscription
of indígenas for labor useful to the Spanish com-
munity. See Repartimiento.
Moderados Individuals comprising the moderate
wing of the Liberal Party in nineteenth-century
Mexico.
Monoculture An area that depends for its eco-
nomic prosperity on the production and export
of one or two primary products.
Mozárabe A term that described Christians who
lived in lands on the Iberian peninsula con-
trolled by Muslim governments.
Mulattos In the Spanish American colonial ra-
cial hierarchy, this refers to mixed-race people
born of African and Spanish parents.
Nacos A derisive slang term used to identify
working-class youth who rebelled against Mex-
ico’s authoritarian and patriarchal culture.
Ñañiguismo The practice, common among Afro-
Cubans, of organizing religious brotherhoods