Jerarquía social, vecindad y juntas de vecinos en la provincia de Sonora (siglos XVII y XVIII): un acercamiento a la representación política de antiguo régimen en una zona marginal y fronteriza del imperio español

Abstract

This article analyzes systems of political representation used by the Spanish inhabitants of the province of Sonora during the Ancien Régime, particularly the mechanisms for allotting and defining the privilege of representation. The case of the province of Sonora as a border and peripheral area is particularly interesting because it allows a comparison with the characterizations of political representation of the Ancien Régime which have been constructed based on research carried out in centralized areas of the Spanish empire, where the corporate complexity of society was greater. Thus, the analysis of a border society, as argued in this article, illustrates the nuances of conventional notions on issues such as political hierarchies, political rights associated with the population of cities and villages (vecindad), and political-territorial representation based on corporations such as city councils.