‘They have always worn Spanish clothes’: Indigenous elites and sumptuary legislation in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century New Spain

Abstract

ABSTRACT Throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Indigenous communities in colonial Mexico experienced discriminatory sumptuary laws. Following colonization, Indigenous elites sought to assert their status, in part, through material means. Drawing on over 500 legal complaints, this article argues that licenses for Spanish clothes, weapons, and accessories formed an important part of the broader framework used by Indigenous elites to solidify their standing within the colonial regime. While ceremonial items like heraldic arms and genealogies legitimized Indigenous families, garments served to establish such individuals on an everyday basis. Petitioners did not request access to ritualistic pre-Columbian garb, but rather, focused exclusively on European daily attire. At the same time, required legal clauses embedded in the licenses offer important windows into the evolving opinions of officials on garments, identity, and socio-racial standing. Although authorities approved all existing licenses, stipulations sought to increasingly restrict native access to items perceived as European. Sumptuary laws thus created an important zone of contestation where Indigenous individuals fought to assert their nobility amidst shifting socio-political climates.