Vecinos, indios, vagos y sirvientes: avatares de la ciudadanía en Sonora durante la primera mitad del siglo XIX

Abstract

Swift transition from subjects to citizens during the Spanish rule, as a result of the processes which began in 1808 with the Napoleon's invasion, shook the institutional structures of the absolute monarchy, including the far-off Province of Sonora. From then on, the political practice considered the citizen as the foundation of sovereignty, which lasted to the independent Mexico, both to the federal republic as well as to the centralist republic. In this paper the way in which the concept of citizenry became reality in the constitutions and in some laws passed by the States of Occident and Sonora congresses during the first half of the 19th century is documented. Likewise, the implications which this had for the participation in the political life of greater sectors of population, those considered as vecinos, term that was a point of contact between the political practice of the Ancien Régime and the new liberal legal system. Furthermore, the way in which citizens were used to eliminate the particular legal statute of the Indians, which gave them exclusivity in the usufruct of their lands and autonomy in their form of government is analyzed. Finally, the exclusion of the citizen's rights from social sectors identified as labor force of the local companies, those called vagos and servants, is documented.