Indigenous peoples (indios or "Indians"), who maintained their culture and lived in their legally recognized communities (the repúblicas de indios), and mixed-race people (the castas), especially the poor in urban centers, were generally considered not to be gente de razón.
The term is ultimately derived from Aristotelian and Roman legal ideas about the use of reason in persons and the status of minority before the law.
Under Roman law many adults (women, grown men who were not heads of household) were deemed legal minors under the protection of a tutor (usually the pater familias).
Colonial leaders used the term "gente de razón" ("people of reason") to distinguish these converted natives from unconverted ones.
Because of this, in the frontier areas mixed-race people had a greater chance of social mobility, and their descendants often became the elites of the region.