Despite a wide interest in the subject, books on Mexican colonial cacicazgo are extremely rare. The subject appears as one of significance in the general problem of indigenous survival and adaptation to colonialism, for cacicazgos reflected native social class systems while they adjusted to Spanish rules of primogeniture, mayorazgo, and property possession. Caciques are frequently interpreted as the most acculturated members of colonial Indian society and likewise as the ones who most successfully maintained positions of native power. They mediated the Spanish and Indian worlds. Moreover we have more information about them than about any other Indian class.
Cacicazgo still needs a thoroughgoing historical analysis, however, for our present knowledge really derives from a limited number of texts and from an application of undemonstrated social theories. The present work is not such an analysis, though it provides some of the materials for making one. Its brief preface barely introduces the subject. The remainder of the volume consists of documents on colonial Mexican cacicazgos, presented without elaboration or commentary. The texts are taken from the Archivo General de la Nación in Mexico and principally from the ramos of Tierras and Vínculos. Most derive from colonial legal cases involving disputes over land possession or over inheritance. The full texts are given in some instances but a large part of the volume consists of summaries of the recorded statements of legal witnesses. Most of the materials relate to the central plateau area, with occasional documentation on cacicazgos in Oaxaca, Guanajuato, Michoacán, and Querétaro.
In general the texts do indicate a high degree of Hispanization at the upper levels of Indian society, notably in the later colonial period. Ethnic mestization occurred, and the landed properties were subjected to Spanish rules of inheritance. The materials have much more of a Spanish than an Indian character. The tendency to legal disputation is very clear, and some of the documents presented to support claims have quite a spurious look. The progressive fusion of cacicazgos and latifundia is readily seen in a number of these cases.
The book has an index of persons and places and a set of plates illustrating coats of arms granted to colonial Mexican caciques.
