The controversy over the indigenous population in New Spain, and the identification process

Abstract

The controversy initiated by Fernando Navarro y Noriega, whose observations onf the growth of the indigenous population contrasted with Humboldt's data, which accentuated miscegenation in the population of New Spain, continues to give cause for reflection. This paper contributes a microhistory based on the parish records of Aguascalientes, New Galicia, and the foundation of the ‘reduction’ of San José de Gracia in the same parish. The recorded increase in Indian baptisms in the eighteenth century, to the detriment of those of the castas, can be explained as a part of a long ‘identification process’ and a strategy that enabled these castas to access indigenous privileges, which included paying fewer taxes and, above all, easier access to land.