Glossary of Spanish Terms
| Abigeato | cattle-rustling |
| Abigeo(s) | cattle-rustler(s) |
| Alcalde | mayor (highest-ranking official of the municipality) |
| Alcaldía | mayoralty |
| Amancebado(s) | individuals in an intimate relationship not formally sanctioned by marriage (in the Spanish colonial context) |
| Amparo | protection, asylum |
| Amparado/a(s) | protected |
| Apoderado/a | delegate |
| Arroyo | small river |
| Ayuntamiento | municipal council |
| Bando | edict |
| Calabozo | prison |
| Cámara de Diputados | House of Representatives |
| Carrera de África | Africa’s run/route (slave trade) |
| Carretero(s) | cart driver(s) and merchant(s) |
| Carta(s) de libertad | freedom paper(s) |
| Carta(s) de seguridad | safety paper(s) |
| Caudillo(s) | local political and/or military leader(s) |
| Chamacuero(s) | straw-thatched house(s) |
| Chaparral | low-lying thicket composed by drought-resistant shrubs |
| Comanchero(s) | in New Mexico and western Texas, Mexican merchants trading with Native Americans, in particular Comanches, Apaches, Navajos and Pueblos |
| Comisario(s) | district administrative and judiciary commissioner(s) elected for a one-year mandate under the Ayuntamiento’s authority (in the context of Mexican Texas) |
| Compadre(s) | godfather(s) |
| Cuartel(es) | administrative district (in Mexico City) |
| Empresario(s) | land agent and settlers recruiter(s) (in the context of Mexican Texas) |
| Frontera | carries both the meanings of “border” and “frontier” |
| Fronterizo(s) | inhabitants of the “frontier” |
| Hacienda | large country estate employed mostly for husbandry and agricultural production |
| Hacendado(s) | owner(s) of the hacienda |
| Huasteca (region) | region of northeastern Mexico encompassing parts or totality of the states of Veracruz, Tamaulipas, Hidalgo, San Luís Potosí and Querétaro |
| Incursión | military raid (often used to refer to invasions by Native American and US filibusters into Spanish and Mexican territory) |
| “Indios bárbaros” | in Spanish and Mexican sources, designates Native Americans with whom the state could not/did not wish to establish peaceful relations |
| Jacal(es) | hut(s) |
| Jefe Político | Political Chief (administrative office) |
| Jefatura Politica | Political Head Office |
| Jornalero(s) | day laborer(s) |
| Juez de Hacienda | tax judge |
| Labor (farmland unit) | 177 acres |
| Labrador(es) | farmworker(s), laborer(s) |
| Legua | 4.19 km |
| Libertad de vientres | free-womb law (all new-born children from an enslaved mother are deemed free by law) |
| Licenciado/a | graduate |
| Mascogo(s) | otherwise known as “Black Seminoles”, Afro-Amerindian community settling in Coahuila during the 1850s. |
| Mestizaje | racial mixing |
| Mulato/a | designates a person of mixed European and African origins (in the Spanish colonial context) |
| Negrero(s) | slave trader(s) |
| Nuevomexicano(s) | person born in New Mexico whose origin/lineage is Hispanic |
| Noreste | in this context, synonym for northeastern Mexico |
| (Norte)americano/a(s) | term often used by Mexicans to refer to US and Texan citizens |
| Pardo(s) | see “mulato(s)” |
| Partido | administrative unit in independent Mexico (between the municipal and state levels) |
| Peón(es) | peons |
| Piloncillo | unrefined sugar |
| Realista(s) | royalist(s) |
| Real Cédula | royal decree |
| Real Orden | royal order |
| Regidor(es) | commissioner(s) |
| Sitio (grazing land unit) | 4428 acres |
| Soterraneo(s) | underground house(s) |
| Tejano/a(s) | person born in Texas whose origin/lineage is Hispanic |
| Trigueño/a | literally “wheat color”, or brown (used in Mexican sources) |
| Vecino/a(s) | status, refers to a person’s membership to the local community, usually at a municipal level (in the Spanish colonial context) |
| Vida maridable | marital life |
| Villa | town or city |