Cacique

In the colonial era, the conquistadors and the administrators who followed them used the word generically to refer to any leader of practically any indigenous group they encountered in the Western Hemisphere.

In Hispanic and Lusophone countries, the term has also come to mean a political boss, similar to a caudillo, exercising power in a system of caciquism.

The Taíno kasikes also enjoyed several privileges that marked them as the elite class of Taíno society: they lived in a larger rectangular hut in the center of the village, rather than the peripheral circular huts of other villagers, and they had reserved places from which to view the areítos (ceremonial dances) and ceremonial ball game.

[8] Most importantly, the kasike's word was law and they exercised this power to oversee a sophisticated government, finely involved with all aspects of social existence.

As a consequence, elite indigenous men willing to cooperate with the colonial rulers replaced their rivals who had better hereditary or traditional claims on leadership.

[22] In contrast to the rest of the Spanish Colonial Americas, in the Andean region the local term kuraka was preferred to cacique.

After conquering the Inca Empire the Spaniards administering the new Peruvian viceroyalty had allowed the kurakas or caciques to maintain their titles of nobility and perquisites of local rule so long as they swore fealty to the Spanish monarch.

At independence in 1825, Simón Bolívar abolished noble titles, but the power and prestige of the kurakas were already in decline following the Great Rebellion.

Despite their entrepreneurial focus, cacicas also wielded considerable authority, acknowledged by native communities, the Spanish Crown, and the Catholic Church.

Their status rivaled high-ranking Spanish men, with privileges like special treatment at religious ceremonies and even distinguished burial sites.

The multifaceted roles of cacicas highlight their integral contributions to Mexican society under Spanish rule, demonstrating their adeptness in economic enterprise, societal leadership, and cultural influence across indigenous communities.An extension of the term cacique, caciquismo ("boss rule") can refer to a political system dominated by the power of local political bosses, the caciques.

[31] Writer Ramón Akal González views Galicia in northwest of Spain, as having remained in a continual state of strangulated growth over centuries as a result of caciquismo and nepotism.

Murdo J. MacLeod suggests that the terms cacique and caudillo "either require further scrutiny or, perhaps, they have become so stretched by the diversity of explanations and processes packed into them that they have become somewhat empty generalizations".