Translocal Agency in Colonial Societies

Abstract

The tribute system in colonial Spanish America ordered social difference. This article shows how the fiscal categorization of people determined their place in colonial society and how these people negotiated their categorization in petitions to the colonial authorities. The article focuses on the case of indigenous migrants, which is especially interesting because their translocal belonging opened up spaces for negotiation. The indigenous migrants contested the intended precise social and spatial ordering of the colonial system. The entanglement of legal categories and human movement will be analyzed in two cases that might be expected to be very similar but were surprisingly different: colonialMexico (New Spain) and Peru, where migrants are more visible in the historical record. The article will also show that the borders of translocal life changed during the colonial period. In doing so, it helps clarify the varying transitions and overlaps between being mobile and sedentary in two colonial societies.