Cabildo (council)

For a discussion of the contemporary Spanish and Latin American cabildo, see Ayuntamiento.

1810 meeting of the cabildo in Buenos Aires

Depiction of the main cabildo buildings of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata.

A cabildo (Spanish pronunciation: [kaˈβildo]) or ayuntamiento (Spanish: [aʝuntaˈmjento]) was a Spanish colonial and early postcolonial 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 essentially the same as the one that was developed in medieval Castile.

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. Historically, the term ayuntamiento was often preceded by the word excelentísimo (English: "most excellent") as a style of office in referring to the council. That phrase is often abbreviated Exc.^mo Ay.^to

History

Cabildo of Salta, Argentina.

The Castilian cabildo has some similarities to the ancient Roman municipium and civitas, especially in the use of plural administrative officers and its control of the surrounding countryside, the territorium, but its evolution is a uniquely-medieval development. With the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and the establishment of the Visigothic Kingdom, the ancient municipal government vanished. In many areas, seeking to escape from the political instability around them, people entrusted themselves to large landholders and to exchanging their service for the landholder's protection in a process that ultimately led to feudalism. (See also Manorialism.) In areas in which the old territoria survived, the Visigothic kings appointed a single officer, called either a comes or a iudice, to replace the defunct municipia or civitates. After the Muslim conquest, the new rulers also appointed various judicial officers to manage the affairs of the cities. Qadis heard any cases that fell under the purview of Sharia law, and sahibs oversaw the administration of the various other areas of urban life, such as the markets and the public order.

The cabildo proper began its slow evolution in the process of the Reconquista. As fortified areas grew into urban centres, or older cities were incorporated into the expanding Christian kingdoms of Portugal, León and Castile, kings and sometimes local lords granted the cities various levels of self-rule and unique sets of laws (the fueros) and made them the administrative centre of a large terminus or alfoz, which was analogous to the ancient territorium. In general, municipal governments often consisted of a council (consejo) that was open to all the property-owning adult males of the city and a nobleman appointed to represent the king and organize the defense of the city and terminus. By the 13th century, these open councils proved unwieldy and were replaced by a smaller body, the cabildo or ayuntamiento consisting of set number of regidores (usually 24 in the largest cities) elected by the property owners in the city. The new bodies took their permanent form by the end of the 14th century. As part of the same process, a municipal council (the consell) with different attributes and composition also evolved in the neighboring Kingdom of Aragon during this period.

Structure

Vargas, José María; Cevallos García, Gabriel and others investigators. (1646)

In theory, every municipality in the Spanish colonies in the Americas and the Spanish Philippines had a cabildo. Municipalities included not only the cities but also 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 that reason, it was often addressed with the formula, Consejo, Justicia y Regimiento (Council, Justice and Government).

Gerardo Flores Ivaldi Oil

The cabildo consisted of several types of officials. There were four to twelve regidores, depending on the size and importance of the municipality. Regidores were not just deliberative officers, but all shared in the administration of the territory by dividing tasks among themselves. Initially the regidores were elected by all the heads of household. In the late Middle Ages, those elections often turned violent, with citizens forming bands to control elections and even resorting to murder. To minimize that problem, kings began to appoint a certain number of or even all of the regidores in certain cities. By the modern era, different cabildos had different mixes of elected and appointed regidores both in Europe and overseas. Finally, to add another layer of control, the kings introduced corregidores to represent them directly and preside over the cabildos. Although many municipalities lost their right to elect all or some of their regidores as time went on, cities and cabildos gained new power with the development of the Castilian and Leonese Parliaments (the cortes) because cities had a right to representation in them.

In addition to the council members, the cabildo had one or two magistrates, the alcades, whom the regidores elected every January 1. Alcaldes served as judges of first instance in all criminal and civil cases and acted as presiding officers of the cabildo unless there was a corregidor. In 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, measures and markets, in charge of the supplies of the city 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 oidores of the audiencia, corregidores (in the places in which they continued to exist after the Bourbon Reforms) and intendant, also saw a rise in the proportion of peninsulares being appointed. The last ones 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 in the late 16th century. As a result of being shut out of those offices, creoles turned to the cabildos for political power. Soon enough, cabildos became the centre of power for creoles, as evidenced in many of the clashes, usually with the peninsular-dominated audiencias, in the period leading up to the Spanish American Wars of Independence. In the first decades of the national period, the traditional form of the cabildo was kept in several Spanish American nations although they were eventually replaced by legislative municipal councils.

List of Spanish American settlements ruled by a cabildo during colonial times

Viceroyalty of New Spain

For most of the colonial period, the Viceroyalty of New Spain was divided into five real audiencias or kingdoms: Santo Domingo, Mexico, Guatemala, New Galicia and Manila. The following list shows the settlements (cities and villas) in the real audiencias that made up New Spain which had a cabildo and were ruled following this municipal form of local government during the Spanish colonial period.

Real Audiencia of New Galicia

City or villa	Colonial province	Modern country	Modern population
Bexar	Texas	United States	1,434,625
Cadereyta	New León	Mexico	75,721
Chihuahua	Durango	Mexico	925,762
Colima	Guadalajara	Mexico	146,965
Durango	Durango	Mexico	616,068
Guadalajara	Guadalajara	Mexico	1,385,629
León	New León	Mexico	7,169
Monterrey	New León	Mexico	1,142,952
Parral	Durango	Mexico	109,510
Saltillo	Coahuila	Mexico	879,958
Santa Fe de Nuevo México	New Mexico	United States	87,505
Parral	Durango	Mexico	44,472

Viceroyalty of New Granada

Since the creation of the Viceroyalty of New Granada, its territory was divided into three real audiencias or kingdoms: New Granada, Quito and Venezuela. The following list shows the settlements (cities and villas) in the real audiencias that made up New Granada which had a cabildo and were ruled following this municipal form of local government during the Spanish colonial period.

Viceroyalty of Peru

After the creation of the Viceroyalties of New Granada and Río de la Plata, the Viceroyalty of Peru was divided into two real audiencias or kingdoms: Peru and Chile. The following list shows the settlements (cities and villas) in the real audiencias that made up Colonial Peru which had a cabildo and were ruled following this municipal form of local government during the Spanish colonial period.

Real Audiencia of Lima in Peru

City or villa	Colonial province	Modern country	Modern population
Arequipa	Arequipa	Peru	1,195,700
Arica	Arequipa	Peru	241,653
Castrovirreyna	Huancavelica	Peru	1,523
Chachapoyas	Trujillo	Peru	32,026
Cusco	Cuzco	Peru	428,450
Huamanga	Huamanga	Peru	180,766
Huánuco	Tarma	Peru	196,627
Ica	Lima	Peru	282,407
Jerez de la Frontera	Jaén	Peru	15,130
Lima	Lima	Peru	10,092,000
Moquegua	Arequipa	Peru	69,882
Moyobamba	Trujillo	Peru	50,073
New Jerez	Jaén	Peru	0
Paita	Trujillo	Peru	179,346
Piura	Trujillo	Peru	630,244
Puno	Puno	Peru	135,288
Santa Marta de Indios	Arequipa	Peru	0
Saña	Trujillo	Peru	4,550
Tangarara	Trujillo	Peru	0
Trujillo	Trujillo	Peru	1,067,700

Real Audiencia of Santiago de Chile

City or villa	Colonial province	Modern country	Modern population
Castro	Chiloé	Chile	29,148
Cauquenes	Concepción	Chile	33,114
Concepcion	Concepción	Chile	223,574
Copiapó	Santiago	Chile	168,831
La Imperial	Concepción	Chile	0
La Serena	Santiago	Chile	212,884
Melipilla	Santiago	Chile	108,540
Osorno	Chiloé	Chile	132,245
Petorca	Santiago	Chile	4,535
Quillota	Santiago	Chile	66,025
Santiago de Chile	Santiago	Chile	6,269,384
Talca	Santiago	Chile	232,131

Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata

Since the creation of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, its territory was divided into two real audiencias or kingdoms: Río de la Plata and Charcas. The following list shows the settlements (cities and villas) in the real audiencias that made up Río de la Plata which had a cabildo and were ruled following this municipal form of local government during the Spanish colonial period.

Real Audiencia of Charcas

City or villa	Colonial province	Modern country	Modern population
Charcas	Charcas	Bolivia	296,125
Cochabamba	Cochabamba	Bolivia	661,484
La Paz	La Paz	Bolivia	757,431
Mizque	Cochabamba	Bolivia	26,659
Oruro	Charcas	Bolivia	297,497
Potosí	Potosí	Bolivia	267,907
Santa Cruz	Cochabamba	Bolivia	1,606,671
Tarija	Potosí	Bolivia	268,000

Currently existing

See also: Cabildo insular

Because cabildos were the city government, the city administrative offices were often called the "cabildo". Those names are preserved in parts of Latin America and even in New Orleans.

At present, cabildos exist only on the Canary Islands (cabildos insulares), with one governing each island, and they are elected. Cabildos there resemble the consells insulars (island councils) of the Balearic Islands.

See also

The "Cabildo Abierto" of May 22, 1810, in the city of Buenos Aires (now part of Argentina, then part of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata), where it was decided to remove the viceroy Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros.

• Ayuntamiento
• Corregidor
• Municipal council
• The Cabildo
• Crown of Castile
• Open cabildo
• Alcalde
• Alcalde ordinario
• Sargento mayor
• Regidor
• Síndico
• Corregimiento
• Teniente a guerra
• Santa Hermandad

Sources

• 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 980-6397-37-1
• O'Callaghan, Joseph F. A History of Medieval Spain. Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 1975. ISBN 0-8014-0880-6
• 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)

External links

• Encyclopædia Britannica Cabildo
• El cabildo secular en Puerto Rico: Siglos XVI - XVIII, by Jorell A. Meléndez Badillo.