Acabildo (Spanish pronunciation:[kaˈβildo]) orayuntamiento (Spanish:[aʝuntaˈmjento]) was aSpanish colonial and early postcolonial administrative council that governed amunicipality. Cabildos were sometimes appointed, sometimes elected, but were considered to be representative of all land-owning heads ofhousehold (vecinos). The colonial cabildo was essentially the same as the one that was developed inmedievalCastile.
The wordcabildo has the same Latin root (capitulum) as the English wordchapter and in fact is also the Spanish word for acathedral chapter. Historically, the termayuntamiento was often preceded by the wordexcelentísimo (English: "most excellent") as astyle of office in referring to the council. That phrase is often abbreviatedExc.mo Ay.to
The Castilian cabildo has some similarities to the ancient Romanmunicipium andcivitas, especially in the use of plural administrative officers and its control of the surrounding countryside, theterritorium, but its evolution is a uniquely-medieval development. With the collapse of theWestern Roman Empire and the establishment of theVisigothic Kingdom, the ancient municipal government vanished. In many areas, seeking to escape from the political instability around them, people entrusted themselves tolarge landholders and to exchanging their service for the landholder's protection in a process that ultimately led tofeudalism. (See alsoManorialism.) In areas in which the oldterritoria survived, the Visigothic kings appointed a single officer, called either acomes or aiudice, to replace the defunctmunicipia orcivitates. After theMuslim conquest, the new rulers also appointed various judicial officers to manage the affairs of the cities.Qadis heard any cases that fell under the purview ofSharia law, andsahibs oversaw the administration of the various other areas of urban life, such as themarkets and thepublic order.[1]
The cabildo proper began its slow evolution in the process of theReconquista. As fortified areas grew into urban centres, or older cities were incorporated into the expanding Christian kingdoms ofPortugal,León andCastile, kings and sometimes local lords granted the cities various levels of self-rule and unique sets of laws (thefueros) and made them the administrative centre of a largeterminus oralfoz, which was analogous to the ancientterritorium. In general, municipal governments often consisted of a council (consejo) that was open to all the property-owning adult males of the city and a nobleman appointed to represent the king and organize the defense of the city andterminus. By the 13th century, these open councils proved unwieldy and were replaced by a smaller body, the cabildo orayuntamiento consisting of set number ofregidores (usually 24 in the largest cities) elected by the property owners in the city. The new bodies took their permanent form by the end of the 14th century. As part of the same process, a municipal council (theconsell) with different attributes and composition also evolved in the neighboringKingdom of Aragon during this period.[2]
In theory, every municipality in the Spanish colonies in theAmericas and theSpanish Philippines had a cabildo. Municipalities included not only the cities but also the surrounding lands. All lands were ultimately assigned to a municipality. Usually, the cabildo made local laws and reported to thepresidente (president) of theaudiencia, who in turn reported to theviceroy. The cabildo had judicial, legislative, and administrative duties. For that reason, it was often addressed with the formula,Consejo, Justicia y Regimiento (Council,Justice andGovernment).
The cabildo consisted of several types of officials. There were four to twelveregidores, depending on the size and importance of the municipality.Regidores were not just deliberative officers, but all shared in the administration of the territory by dividing tasks among themselves. Initially theregidores were elected by all the heads of household. In the late Middle Ages, those elections often turned violent, with citizens forming bands to control elections and even resorting to murder. To minimize that problem, kings began to appoint a certain number of or even all of theregidores in certain cities. By the modern era, different cabildos had different mixes of elected and appointedregidores both in Europe and overseas. Finally, to add another layer of control, the kings introducedcorregidores to represent them directly and preside over the cabildos. Although many municipalities lost their right to elect all or some of theirregidores as time went on, cities and cabildos gained new power with the development of the Castilian and Leonese Parliaments (thecortes) because cities had a right to representation in them.[3]
In addition to the council members, the cabildo had one or two magistrates, thealcades, whom theregidores elected every January 1.Alcaldes served as judges of first instance in all criminal and civil cases and acted as presiding officers of the cabildo unless there was acorregidor. In provincial capitals, the firstalcalde would fill in for incapacitated governors. Other officers were thealférez real (royal standard-bearer), who had a vote in cabildo deliberations and would substitute thealcalde if the latter could not carry out the functions of his office; thealguacil mayor, who oversaw locallaw enforcement; thefiel ejecutor, who was the inspector of weights, measures and markets, in charge of the supplies of the city and oversaw municipal sanitation; theprocurador or city attorney; and ascribe.
After theBourbon Reforms,peninsulares were almost exclusively appointed to the positions of viceroy and bishop. Other offices, such asoidores of theaudiencia,corregidores (in the places in which they continued to exist after the Bourbon Reforms) andintendant, also saw a rise in the proportion ofpeninsulares being appointed. The last ones had been positions to whichcreoles once had easy access, especially after the approval of the sale of offices, which began during the financial crisis in the late 16th century. As a result of being shut out of those offices, creoles turned to the cabildos for political power. Soon enough, cabildos became the centre of power for creoles, as evidenced in many of the clashes, usually with thepeninsular-dominatedaudiencias, in the period leading up to theSpanish American Wars of Independence. In the first decades of the national period, the traditional form of the cabildo was kept in several Spanish American nations although they were eventually replaced bylegislative municipal councils.
Because cabildos were the city government, the city administrative offices were often called the "cabildo". Those names are preserved in parts ofLatin America and even inNew Orleans.
At present, cabildos exist only on theCanary Islands (cabildos insulares), with one governing each island, and they are elected. Cabildos there resemble theconsells insulars (island councils) of theBalearic Islands.
