Chapter nine examines the lives and the characteristics of the first indios ladinos who broke bonds of servitude to establish themselves as vecinos in Santafé (de Bogotá) and Tunja, making use of evidence left behind by members of the urban native community in hundreds of notarial documents, including last wills and testaments, powers of attorney, and bills of sale. I document the process by which some native migrants could hope to become citizens (vecinos)– fully enfranchised members –of the Spanish city, while others were recorded as inhabitants (moradores) and temporary residents (estantes) with few(er) rights and privileges. In so doing, I reflect on the role that marriage, religion, property ownership, language, and dress played in conditioning membership in the urban fabric of the Spanish colonies. Mapping the social practice of citizenship (vecindad) against a web of royal law and legal jurisprudence serves to better understand how local practice in the New Kingdom of Granada fit within imperial frameworks.

Chapter five explores definitions of citizenship in jurisprudence, royal law, and municipal ordinance. Ecclesiastical statutes tended to shape policy for indios under the assumption that they were to be administered in their own “republic” (i.e. within their own pueblos, separate from Spanish settlements). This chapter highlights how the city of Santafé responded when numerous indios ladinos emigrated out of their pueblos and into the settlement of Santafé.