Escogidas Plantas: Glossary 4/24/03 6:59 PM Glossary alcalde: holder of one of the major offices in the urban government; magistrate alférez: ensign; member of the municipal government whose duty was to carry the standard on ceremonial occasions; a highly coveted office alguacil mayor: senior municipal constable audiencia: high court; highest resident royal governing body of Spanish America, functioning as administrative body and court of appeal; also the territory governed by the high court auto de fe: ceremony in which the Holy Office of the Inquisition announced and/or carried out its sentences, generally though not always public ayuntamiento: municipal government; synonymous with CABILDO Aztec: popular name for the empire centred on the city-state TENOCHTITLAN, whose people called themselves the MEXICA barrio: neighborhood beata: woman who wore a religious habit, lived a religious life, and may have taken formal or informal vows, particularly concerning chastity; in English, beguine beaterio: house in which one or more BEATAs lived, generally uncloistered; beguinage caballería: unit of land measurement, approximately 105 acres cabildo (or cabildo secular): municipal government; synonymous with AYUNTAMIENTO cabildo eclesiástico: cathedral chapter or governing council of a cathedral, assisting the bishop in his duties cacique: native leader, generally a noble or notable capellana: nun who served a CAPELLANIA capellanía: chaplaincy; an endowment that provided a certain yearly income in return for spiritual services capitalinos: inhabitants of Mexico City (modern usage) Casa de Contratación: the body established in Seville in 1503 to oversee trade and travel between Spain and America http://www.gutenberg-e.org/hoj01/print/hoj11.html Page 1 of 6 Escogidas Plantas: Glossary 4/24/03 6:59 PM castas: Africans and those of mixed race cédula: decree or authorization, generally royal (real cédula) censo: lien or encumbrance on property, generally to yield annual income clausura: cloistering cofradía: religious brotherhood or sodality made up of laymen (and sometimes laywomen), usually to support a particular cult or festival cofrade: member of a COFRADíA colegialas: scholarship or charity recipients colegio: school, generally a secondary school comisario general (commissary general): high authority of the Franciscan order, with power over the provincials and subordinate to the superior general costumbrismo: writing about local customs and manners; in a historian, devotion to such details; hence costumbrista Council of the Indies: the body that governed Spanish America, resident in Seville, Spain; next to the King, the highest authority in matters American Council of Trent: the council (1545-1563) that drafted the series of measures for the reform and rejuvenation of the Catholic Church generally known as the Counter-Reformation or Catholic Reformation criada/criado: generally, dependent (from criar, "to raise,"), usually a servant criolla/criollo: creole; that is, American-born Spaniard crypto-Jew: individual who practices Judaism (illegal in New Spain) de levi: lightly; a lesser abjuration than de vehementi, which connoted serious wrongdoing depositada: a woman "deposited" for safekeeping doctrina: (a) religious doctrine; (b) an Indian parish administered by friars donada/donado: lay sister/brother dowry: money or property granted to woman (usually by parents) for her support upon entering marriage or religious life ejemplo: "example"; (a) modeling good (particularly Christian) behavior; (b) a teaching play used (especially by the Franciscans) to dramatize the importance http://www.gutenberg-e.org/hoj01/print/hoj11.html Page 2 of 6 Escogidas Plantas: Glossary 4/24/03 6:59 PM of such behavior and promote "proper" conduct emparedimiento: RECOGIMIENTO or BEATERIO, usually cloistered encerramiento: enclosure or confinement; (a) the ritual of closing a newly established convent; (b) RECOGIMIENTO or BEATERIO, usually informal encomienda: grant to Spanish settler of authority over Indians for the purpose of tribute collection and (in the early colony) labor extraction; obliged the holder to Christianize and protect the Indians encomendero: holder of an ENCOMIENDA escribano: scribe, notary fiscal: adviser or legal counsel flamenco: Flemish flota: the regularly scheduled fleet that sailed from Spain to Vera Cruz friar: member of a Mendicant (begging) religious order Friars Minor: Franciscans gachupín/gachupina: Spaniard (born in Spain); also peninsular gente de razón: "people of reason"; generally, Spaniards hidalgo: gentleman, petty nobleman indígena: indigenous person (modern usage); a term acceptable in modern usage indio: Indian, one bearing a special legal status under Spanish colonial law; generally a pejorative term in modern usage internado: boarder limpieza de sangre: "purity of blood"; generally, the absence of Jewish ancestry maestra: teacher maestrescuela: member of the CABILDO ECLESIASTICO in charge of cathedral school mayorazgo: an entailed estate, created to prevent fragmentation of family wealth mayordomo: majordomo or administrator, particularly in financial matters http://www.gutenberg-e.org/hoj01/print/hoj11.html Page 3 of 6 Escogidas Plantas: Glossary 4/24/03 6:59 PM merced: "mercy"; royal grant or gift mestizaje: race mixture; miscegenation mestiza/mestizo: person of mixed race, generally describing a Spanish/Indian mixture Mexica: the name used by the people who inhabited TENOCHTITLAN and ruled the "AZTEC" empire; the people known popularly as Aztecs Moctezuma (also Motecuhzoma): tlatoani or "emperor" of the MEXICA during the conquest, known as Montezuma in English morisca/morisco: "Moor"; person of Muslim ancestry mulata/mulato: person of mixed African/Spanish ancestry naturales: "natives"; when used this way, usually meaning Indians, though it was customary for Spaniards to describe themselves as "natural" of a city or region New Spain: the Spanish colony (viceroyalty) corresponding roughly to the territory of modern Mexico, though its jurisdiction included the Philippines and parts of Central America, the Caribbean, and the modern United States of America; Mexico City was its capital Old Christians: those without Jewish or Muslim ancestry (see LIMPIEZA DE SANGRE) oidor: judge of the AUDIENCIA Peru: the Spanish colony (viceroyalty) encompassing (until 1739) the entirety of Spanish South America and modern Panama peso: monetary unit used within New Spain, though (confusingly) of different varieties petate: straw mat plaza mayor: the main plaza of a city principal: native noble or notable, member of the Indian elite procurador mayor: senior solicitor of the urban government protomédico:in this period, offical appointed by the cabildo to oversee matters medical provincial: governor of a religious order's province http://www.gutenberg-e.org/hoj01/print/hoj11.html Page 4 of 6 Escogidas Plantas: Glossary 4/24/03 6:59 PM provisor: chief judge (in church matters) of a diocese, and assistant to the bishop pupilas: boarding school students recogimiento: (a) "house of penitence": a place where women were collected and enclosed to "remedy" their defects regidor: alderman or councillor of the CABILDO regular clergy: members of religious orders, who live according to a rule (regula) relación: narrative; official account religiosa: roughly, nun, but could also mean more generally "religious woman" república de españoles: "republic of Spaniards": all non-Indians; Spaniards, Africans, and those of mixed race república de indios: "Indian republic": Indians, particularly those living in villages and native communities secular clergy: diocesan priests, subject to the authority of the bishop solar: city lot Tenochtitlan: the Mexica (Aztec) city-state that dominated Central Mexico at the time of Spanish conquest; the city that became Mexico City and was called México-Tenochtitlan for much of the sixteenth century traza: city center, laid out on the gridiron pattern typical of Spanish America (and decreed by law) tridentine: influenced by the decrees and/or spirit of the COUNCIL OF TRENT vecino: citizen or resident of a city; formally, someone granted this status by the municipal council, thus generally propertied and Spanish viceroy: the supreme representative of royal authority; an appointee resident within a viceroyalty and exercising royal power vida: "life"; a formal biography or resumé of an individual's life vida común: the communal life of convents in the early colonial period, in contrast to the later vida particular or private life visita: (a) pastoral visit or inspection carried out by bishop or someone acting on his behalf; (b) royal inspection by appointed inspector, generally to investigate a specific problem; (c) church or community with a non-resident pastor http://www.gutenberg-e.org/hoj01/print/hoj11.html Page 5 of 6 Escogidas Plantas: Glossary 4/24/03 6:59 PM visitador: inspector; one appointed to conduct a VISITA zócalo: Mexico's plaza mayor Escogidas Plantas: Nuns and Beatas in Mexico City, 1531-1601 http://www.gutenberg-e.org/hoj01/print/hoj11.html Page 6 of 6.