naboría

The term "naboría" refers to indigenous workers in colonial Spanish America who were directly and permanently dependent on a Spanish ruler or noble, similar to a traditional role within indigenous society where individuals were dependent on their ruler or a noble. Spaniards appropriated this role, commandeering substantial numbers of indigenous people for their permanent employ and calling them naborías.1

These workers became an increasingly significant element in the colonial equation, representing a key point of cultural change and a link between Spanish and indigenous worlds. The naboría system was part of broader labor exploitation systems like the repartimiento, which allowed colonists to recruit indigenous people for forced labor in mines and agriculture. While legally regulated, these systems often involved brutal treatment and were instrumental in the decline of indigenous populations due to dislocations and new diseases.12