Cabildo (council)
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A cabildo or ayuntamiento was a former Spanish, colonial administrative council that governed a municipality. Cabildos were sometimes appointed, sometimes elected, but were considered to be representative of all land-owning heads of household (vecinos). The colonial cabildo was esentially the same as the one that had developed in medieval Castile. The cabildo was the legal representative of the municipality—and its vecinos—before the crown, therefore it was among the first institutions established by the conquistadores themselves after, or even before, taking over an area. For example, Herán Cortés established La Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz to free himself from the authority of the Governor of Cuba. The word cabildo has the same Latin root (capitulum) as the English word "chapter," and in fact, is also the Spanish word for a cathedral chapter.
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[edit] Structure
In theory every municipality in the Spanish colonies in the Americas had a cabildo. Municipalities were not just the cities but included the surrounding lands. All lands were ultimately assigned to a municipality. Usually the cabildo made local laws and reported to the presidente (president) of the audiencia, who in turn reported to the viceroy. The cabildo had judicial, legislative and administrative duties. For this reason it was often addressed with the formula, Consejo, Justicia y Regimiento (Council, Justice and Government).
The cabildo consisted of several types of officials. There were four to twelve regidores, depending on the size and importance of the municipality. Regidores all shared in the administration of the territory. In addition every January 1st the vecinos elected one or two magistrates, alcaldes, who served as judges of first instance in all criminal and civil cases, acted as presiding officers of the cabildo, and in the provincial capitals the first alcalde would fill in for incapacitated governors. Other officers were the alférez real (royal standard-bearer), who had a vote in cabildo deliberations and would substitute the alcalde if the latter could not carry out the functions of his office; the alguacil mayor, who oversaw local law enforcement; the fiel ejecutor, who was the inspector of weights and meassures and markets and oversaw municipal sanitation; the procurador or city attorney; and a scribe.
After the Bourbon Reforms, peninsulares were almost exclusively appointed to the positions of viceroy and bishop. Other offices, such as oidor of the audiencias, corregidor and intendant, also saw a rise the the number of peninsulares being appointed. The latter had been positions to which creoles once had easy access, especially after the approval of the sale of offices which began during the financial crisis at the end of the 16th century. As a result of being shut out of these offices, creoles turned to the cabildos for political power. Soon enough cabildos became the center of power for creoles, as evidenced in many of the clashes, usually with peninsular-dominant audiencias, leading up to the Wars of Independence.
[edit] Modern cabildos
Because cabildos were the city government, the city administrative offices were often called the Cabildo. These names are preserved throughout Latin America, and even in New Orleans.
At present, cabildos exist only on the Canary Islands, one governing each island, and they are elected. Cabildos there resemble the consells insulars (island councils) of the Balearic Islands.
[edit] References
- Din, Gilbert C. (1996) The New Orleans Cabildo: Colonial Louisiana's First City Government, 1769-1803 Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge, ISBN 0-8071-2042-1
- Fisher, John (1969) "The Intendant System and the Cabildos of Peru, 1784-1810" The Hispanic American Historical Review 49(3): pp. 430-453
- "Municipios", Diccionario de Historia de Venezuela. Caracas: Fundación Polar, 1997. ISBN 9806397371
- Pike, Fredrick B. (1960) "The Cabildo and Colonial Loyalty to Hapsburg Rulers" Journal of Inter-American Studies 2(4): pp. 405-420
- Pike, Fredrick B. (1958) "The Municipality and the System of Checks and Balances in Spanish American Colonial Administration" The Americas 15(2): pp. 139-158
- Meissner, Jochen (1993) Eine Elite im Umbruch: Der Stadtrat von Mexiko zwischen kolonialer Ordnung und unabhangigem Staat, 1761-1821 F. Steiner, Stuttgart, ISBN 3-515-06098-7, in German, (An Elite in the Breach: The Cabildos of Mexico between Colonial Order and the Unforgiving State)
[edit] See also
- Ayuntamiento, often a synonym of cabildo.
- Cabildo, disambiguation page
- Municipal council, comparable system in France and India
- The Cabildo, Spanish governmental building in New Orleans
