Gachupín is a Spanish-language term derived from a noble surname of northern Spain, the Cachopín of Laredo (present-day Cantabria).
It was popularized during the Spanish Golden Age as a stereotype and literary stock character representing the hidalgo (petty nobility) class which was characterized as arrogant and overbearing.
The Diccionario de Autoridades (1729) defines cachupín as "The Spaniard that goes and lives in the West Indies, called chapetón in Peru.
"[1] Since the 1780 edition, the academic dictionary, recognizes the variant beginning with the letter "g" understood to have arisen in the New World: "In The Indies, where they say gachupín" [2] or "godo".
In the 19th century it was used in pro-independence slogans such as Mueran los gachupines ("Death to the peninsulares") as part of one version of Miguel Hidalgo's Cry of Dolores.