the urbanx Indian in colonial Oaxaca¹

Documentary sources from Mexican and Spanish archives are used to analyze ethnicity and ethnic change among the urban Indians in the Spanish city of Antequera (now called Oaxaca) in colonial Mexico. After briefly reviewing the ethnography of the Valley of Oaxaca at the time of Spanish contact, I will discuss the ethnic boundaries among the Nahuas, Zapotecs, and Mixtecs of Antequera, the relation of the Indians to other socioracial categories in the city (i.e., Spaniards , mestizos, mulattoes), and the course of change within urban Indian society between 1521 and 1800 .