Caciques

A cacique (Spanish: [kaˈθike]; Portuguese: [kɐˈsikɨ, kaˈsiki]; feminine form: cacica) is a leader of an indigenous group, derived from the Taíno word kasikɛ for the pre-Columbian tribal chiefs in the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles.

The Spanish used the word as a title for the leaders of the other indigenous groups that they encountered in the Western Hemisphere, with the Andes being the major exception, and their local denomination was called kuraka. In Colonial Mexico, caciques and their families were considered part of the Mexican nobility, often also holding the Spanish noble honorific don and doña and some having entailed estates or cacicazgos. The records of many of these Mexican estates are held in the Mexican national archives in a section Vínculos ("entails").

In Mexico, the Spaniards' use of the term cacique to designate indigenous rulers had important implications since individuals and communities might claim such a status even if under the indigenous system of nomenclature, they would not have fulfilled the criteria.

In Peru, the Spaniards had allowed the caciques to maintain their titles of nobility as long as they converted to Catholicism, until the Tupac Amaru II rebellion. Afterwards, the Andean nobles were forced to prove their titles, but many of them were unable to do so because their belongings had been destroyed or stolen after the rebellion. Some mestizos took advantage of the situation and presented questionable documents that accredited them as the true descendants of the pre-Columbian kurakas.

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