Indian militiamen officially listed as "white" (Bayamo, eastern Cuba, 1700s; article 2006)
Record: the document says itPattern: documents line upLens: our readingOpen: not yet proven
Year: 1700 · Places: Caribbean, Europe
SUMMARYIndian militiamen officially listed as "white" (Bayamo, eastern Cuba, 1700s; article 2006) [Connections: Latin America & Caribbean, Nov 5, 2026]
RECORDHistorian Jason Yaremko ("'Gente bárbara': Indigenous Rebellion, Resistance and Persistence in Colonial Cuba, c. 1500–1800," KACIKE, 2006) reports that Indian militia recruits in Bayamo were officially listed as "white" because of labor shortages and rules on recruiting into white battalions; he calls the declaration "official–if deceptive" (citing Kuethe). He also reports that censuses did not list mestizos or mulattos until the 1580s, that Bishop Juan del Castillo's 1570 visita found "the large number of married–and therefore converted–Indians" in Spanish towns (AGI, Patronato 177, N.1, R.24), and that Cuba's pueblos indios were abolished in 1844
PATTERNHere the paper moved Indians into "white" when the army needed them. The category followed the colonial need, not the person
LENS (WW9)Same people, whatever color the paperwork needed that year
OPENThe original militia rolls (Kuethe's source) need to be located