Cities: Ethnicities

Cities presented a far more complex mosaic of ethnicities than did the countryside. In fact, they constituted the arena of the greatest interaction of the different ethnic groups and the generation of yet new classifications. The Spanish element of Mexican society, whether criollo (those born in the Americas) or immigrant, resided overwhelmingly in cities. Although most Spaniards held either some property or some remunerative skill, within a century of settlement an identifiable group of quite poor, working-class Spaniards could be found at least in the biggest cities. These seem to be hardly favored by their ethnic identity and lived in the same conditions and were regarded in the same way as their nonSpanish counterparts. Spaniards resided in or close to the heart of the city. Few of any rank were to be found in outlying neighborhoods.

Blacks and mulattoes, sometimes enslaved and sometimes free, came to Mexicoinsignificant numbers from the earliest days of the colony. Very much part of the Spanish colonial world, many lived in the cities, working as skilled artisans, transporters, marketplace workers, household servants, and the like. Urban slaves enjoyed rather favorable circumstances for manumission, often being on intimate terms with their masters or employed in remunerative occupations. Most people of African descent lived in or close to the Spanish districts near the center of the city. In the several largest cities, some small neighborhoods dominated by free blacks and mulattoes did emerge.

Some Indians always lived in the central part of the cities, typically employed as household servants or as low-level employees in retail stores, artisan shops, or eateries. Most, however, clustered in Indian neighborhoods located in the outskirts of the cities. Many entered the city proper to work as unskilled laborers during the day. Some of these native barrios enjoyed their own political identity and governance by Indian governors. Most, however, sprung up over the decades and were rather casually attached to the city itself and governed by its council. Initially, each barrio tended to have a sharp ethnic identity, being inhabited almost exclusively by one native group or another. But this exclusivity broke down rather rapidly over the decades, and while these neighborhoods remained overwhelmingly Indian, peoples from a variety of native societies would live in each, interacting intimately and intermarrying, and with time some "mixed bloods" would enter the population as well. These outlying neighborhoods were not neatly laid out in regular patterns, as was the central city. Streets wandered in all directions and residences tended to be more ramshackle. But as these cities grew, especially late in the colonial period, they incorporated some of these neighborhoods, with the lower-class native populations moving a bit farther out. The irregular nature of the street system would be retained.