Female Defense for Land Tenure During the Late Colonial Period in Metztitlán

Abstract

In the second half of the eighteenth century and the first decades of the nineteenth century, eight Indigenous women from the pueblo de indios of Metzitlán defended their rights to land tenure in front of the colonial courts of New Spain. Four of these women belonged to the local elite, while the rest were part of the common people and identified as tribute payers. By following each of these cases, this article shows how gender, status and belonging to a social class were factors that shaped these women’s agencies in accessing land as a means of livelihood.