| Sumario: | This article analyzes the territorial tensions confronted by the Orizaba Indian Republic since the middle of the 18th Century. On the one hand, it suffered from a process of territorial fragmentation caused by the separation of subject towns from the government, which reduced their political space and simplified both the government and its jurisdictional functions. On the other hand, they were challenged by the aspirations of the Spanish vecinos, who possessed self-government and ejidos and whose settlements were given the status of villas. Faced with these problems, the Indians used strategies aimed at reaffirming the territoriality of their government: they obained new privileges from the king, reconstituted the historical memory of the founding of the town, expanded their community land and, under the Constitution of 1812, used the liberal discourse on citizenship and property to maintain the cohesion of their communities.
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