Daily Life In Colonial Latin America (36 page)

lavrador
—Category of Brazilian farmer below the level of the
sugar-planting elite.

llanero
—Venezuelan ranch hand, cowboy; resident
of the
llanos
(plains).

mameluco
—Individuals of mixed Portuguese and native ancestry in places
like São Paulo; their cultural knowledge often made them expert slave hunters
(see
bandeirante
).

maroon
—See
cimarrón.

mascarada
—Popular entertainment consisting of a lively parade by masked
performers representing well-known personages from the realms of myth, history,
or well-known literary works.

mazombo
—Brazilian-born Portuguese, as opposed to
reinois
from Portugal.

mecapal
—Tumpline, leather strap worn across the forehead and tied to a
load carried behind the back.

mestizo (Port. mestiço)
—Applied originally to individuals of
mixed Spanish and indigenous ancestry and often more generally to people of
mixed origins.

metate
—Grinding stone for preparing the corn flour used to make
tortillas in Mexico and Central America.

minga
—Wage laborer in Andean silver mines.

mita
—Labor draft in the Andes, from a Quechua word; used most famously
to provide labor for silver mining at Potosí and mercury mining at
Huancavelica; see
repartimiento.

mitayo
—Indigenous worker subject to the
mita.

mulato/-a
—Term originally applied to individuals of mixed African and
European ancestry; also used in many parts of Spanish America to describe
people of mixed African and indigenous ancestry.

originario
—Native-born resident of an indigenous village, generally with
long-term ancestral roots in the community; included in assessments of village
labor and tribute obligations.

pardo
—Literally “brown,” applied to people of part-African origins in
many parts of Spanish America; less pejorative than
mulato.

patrón
—Large landowner or other elite Spaniard who offered a combination
of credit and protection from the law to employees, expecting loyalty and
submission in return.

peninsular
—Spaniard from the Iberian peninsula, as opposed to a
criollo
(creole),
or American-born Spaniard.

petate
—Sleeping mat woven of reeds.

pulque
—A cloudy, weakly fermented Mexican beverage made from the
maguey
cactus; main alcoholic substance prior to Spanish arrival.

quilombo (Sp. palenque)
—Outlaw settlement of
maroons
(escaped slaves).

quinoa
—A grain eaten since ancient times in the Andean region of South
America.

recogimiento
—State of seclusion for women, either in the home or in an
institution known as a
casa de recogimiento,
for a variety of reasons
ranging from protection to punishment.

regidor
—Municipal councilor in Spanish America.

reinois
—Portuguese from Portugal (i.e., from the
reino,
or
“kingdom,” as opposed to Brazilian-born
mazombo
).

repartimiento
—Labor draft by which a fixed proportion of a native village’s
adult male population was sent to work for Spanish employers in mining or
agricultural activities for a specified length of time; generally called
mita
in the Andes.

resgate (Sp. rescate)
—Slave trade camouflaged as the “rescue” by European
Christians of native peoples subjected to enslavement, cannibalism, or, simply,
a non-Christian religious atmosphere while under the control of other
unconquered indigenous groups.

safra (Sp. zafra)
—Period of the sugarcane harvest, lasting as long as nine
months in Brazil.

senado da câmara
—Rough equivalent in Brazil of Spanish American
cabildo,
or
municipal council.

Siete Partidas
—Medieval Spanish law code providing some legal protections, at
least in theory, to slaves.

tinku
—Ritual conflict acted out in Andean native communities during the
days immediately preceding the beginning of Lent; rooted in pre-colonial
fertility rites as well as historical animosities both within and between
native villages.

tribute
—Tax assessed on heads of household in native villages in Spanish
America, generally including a mix of cash and in-kind contributions; an
alternative tribute, collected less systematically, was levied on free people
of African ancestry and natives who had no ties to particular villages (see
laborío
).

vaquero
—Spanish American ranch hand, cowboy.

viceroyalty
—Largest administrative region in Spanish America, governed by a
viceroy; there were two, Peru and New Spain, until the 18th century, when two
more, New Granada and La Plata, were carved out of Peru’s jurisdiction.

yanacona
—Andean natives tied as domestic laborers to individual Spaniards
rather than belonging to a tribute-paying village.

zambo
—Used in some parts of Spanish America as a designation for
individuals of mixed African and indigenous ancestry.

About the Authors

ANN
JEFFERSON has a PhD in history with a focus on Latin America from the
University of Massachusetts at Amherst and is a lecturer in the History
Department at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. Her work focuses on
resistance and rebellion in Latin America. The central players in her
dissertation are the
mulatos libres
of eastern Guatemala at the end of
the colonial period.

PAUL
LOKKEN has a PhD in Latin American history from the University of Florida and
is Associate Professor of History at Bryant University in Smithfield, Rhode
Island. He has published a number of journal articles and book chapters on the
African experience in colonial Central America.