Cacicazgo

Many individual cacicazgos have been studied in colonial Mexico, showing that entailment was a successful means to preserve noble indigenous resources as the situation for commoners declined.

[5] In the Archivo General de la Nación, Mexico, a whole section of records, called Vínculos, is devoted to individual noble entailments.

[7] Conflicts over inheritance were common, and the litigants' arguments found in these cases form the basis for understanding some of the dynamics of the institution.

"By law, a cacique was a single heir and possessor of a cacicazgo estate, which always included land and often a subject labor force to work it.

The Indians themselves, however, saw things differently, and by late colonial times it was not unusual for all the sons and daughters of a cacique (or cacica) to adopt the title.