Criollo people

Historically, they have been misportrayed as a social class in the hierarchy of the overseas colonies established by Spain beginning in the 16th century, especially in Hispanic America.

[1][2] Their identity was strengthened as a result of the Bourbon reforms of 1700, which changed the Spanish Empire's policies toward its colonies and led to tensions between criollos and peninsulares.

However, Spaniards were often the most numerous ethnic group in the colonial cities,[10][11] and there were menial workers and people in poverty who were of Spanish origin throughout all of Latin America.

Instruments introduced by the Spanish are the chirimías, sackbuts, dulcians, orlos, bugles, violas, guitars, violins, harps, organs, etc., along with percussions (that can be indigenous or African), everything converges on music heard by everyone.

The Jesuits develop with great success a "pedagogy of theatricality", with this the Society of Jesus attracts the natives and blacks to the church, where children learn to play European instruments.

[18] The Spanish Santa Teresa de Mose (Florida) became the first legally sanctioned free black town in the present-day United States.

[22] After suppressing the Túpac Amaru II Uprising of 1780 in the viceroyalty of Peru, evidence began against the criollos ill will from the Spanish Crown, especially for the Oruro Rebellion prosecuted in Buenos Aires, and also for the lawsuit filed against Dr. Juan José Segovia, born in Tacna, and Colonel Ignacio Flores, born in Quito, who had served as President of the Real Audiencia of Charcas and had been Governor Mayor of La Plata (Chuquisaca or Charcas, current Sucre).

[citation needed] By the 19th century, this discriminatory policy of the Spanish Crown and the examples of the American and French revolutions, led Criollo factions to rebel against the peninsulares.

[24][25] In some countries, the term was extended or changed over the years: As early as the sixteenth century in the colonial period in New Spain, criollos, or the "descendants of Spanish colonists,"[27] began to "distinguish themselves from the richer and more powerful peninsulares," whom they referred to as gachupines, as an insult.

[28] In 1563, the criollo sons of Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés, attempted to remove Mexico from Spanish-born rule and place Martín, their half-brother, in power.

In response, a visiting Spaniard by the name of Martín Carrillo noted, "the hatred of the mother country's domination is deeply rooted, especially among the criollos.

"[29] By the eighteenth century, although restricted from holding elite posts in the colonial government, the criollos notably formed the "wealthy and influential" class of major agriculturalists, "miners, businessmen, physicians, lawyers, university professors, clerics, and military officers."

Because criollos were not perceived as equals by the Spanish peninsulares, "they felt they were unjustly treated and their relationship with their mother country was unstable and ambiguous: Spain was, and was not, their homeland," as noted by Mexican writer Octavio Paz.

[27]As early as 1799, open riots against Spanish colonial rule were unfolding in Mexico City, foreshadowing the emergence of a fully-fledged independence movement.

As news of Napoleon I's armies occupying Spain reached Mexico, Spanish-born peninsulares such as Gabriel de Yermo strongly opposed criollo proposals of governance, deposed the viceroy, and assumed power.

This, in turn, motivated criollo priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla to begin a campaign for Mexican independence from Spanish colonial rule.

While many criollos in the period resented their "second-class status" compared to peninsulares, they were "afraid that the overthrow of the Spanish might mean sharing power with Amerindians and Mestizos, whom they considered to be their inferiors."

[29] Mexico gained its independence from Spain in 1821 under the coalitionary leadership of conservatives, former royalists, and criollos, who detested Emperor Ferdinand VII's adoption of a liberal constitution that threatened their power.

[33] Leadership "changed hands 48 times between 1825 and 1855" alone, "and the period witnessed both the Mexican-American War and the loss of Mexico's northern territories to the United States in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the Gadsden Purchase."

"[29] The first great wave of Spanish settlers to Central American lands occurred after the conquest of Tenochtitlan when they began to reach the soil of what is today Guatemala and the coasts of Honduras.

The towns where this population was settled enjoyed the construction of large colonial buildings that today continue to be heritage of the Central American nations.

There are several records of Spanish families in Central America with enormous fortunes who managed to obtain noble titles from the crown.

Although many Central Americans who were part of the elite or were respected landowners used to be Criollos, there were also those who were poor, since they were children of those Spaniards who migrated as laborers in the construction of churches and palaces in the general captaincy of Guatemala.

In some cases, Criollo families who were unable to prosper in the colonial economy or who lost their property due to debt or conflict found themselves in situations of poverty.

[37] Although they enjoyed a privileged economic situation, they faced limitations in accessing the high administrative positions that the Spanish empire reserved for the peninsular.

Prior to incorporation into the United States (and briefly, into Independent Texas), Hispanos had enjoyed a privileged status in the society of New Spain, and later in post-colonial Mexico.