Dear Emilie,

As Mario says above, after Mexico became and independent country (first as an Empire and then as a Republic) the castes were abolished. Indeed equality between castes was one of the causes for the war of independence. Thereafter all people born on Mexican soil were officially "Mexicano" and no longer members of a caste.

I have done most of my research in Autlán, and have found that the priest started using the term "ciudadano" (citizen) pretty early, as early as April 1821, which was five months before the formal end of the war of Independence in September 1821. Using the term citizen is inherently equalizing.

https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-18535-30805-16?cc=1874591&wc…

Hope this helps!

Sergio

Wikipedia says

The Plan of Iguala, also known as The Plan of the Three Guarantees ("Plan Trigarante"), was a revolutionary proclamation promulgated on 24 February 1821, in the final stage of the Mexican War of Independence from Spain. The Plan stated that Mexico was to become a constitutional monarchy, whose sole official religion would be Roman Catholicism, in which all inhabitants of Mexico would enjoy equal political and social rights.[2] It took its name from the city of Iguala in the modern-day state of Guerrero.

The Plan of Iguala established three central principles for the nascent Mexican state: the primacy of Roman Catholicism, the absolute political independence of Mexico, and full social equality for all social and ethnic groups in the new country. These are the "Three Guarantees" by which the Plan is sometimes known, summarized as "Religion, Independence and Unity" ("Religión, Independencia y Unión").

The document explicitly includes all residents of Mexico's geographic territory among its citizens: the preamble refers to "Americans, under which term are included not only those born in America, but Europeans, Africans and Asians who reside in it," and Article 12 states: "All the inhabitants of the Mexican Empire, without any other distinction besides merit and virtue, are suitable citizens to apply for any employment," or "All the inhabitants of New Spain, without any distinction between Europeans, Africans, nor Indians, are citizens of this Monarchy with option to all employment depending on their merit and virtues," depending on the copy.

Julieta

----Message d'origine----
De : glezgo65@gmail.com
Date : 08/02/2015 - 02:52 (EO)
À : research@nuestrosranchos.org
Objet : Re: [Nuestros Ranchos] What does C. M. mean?

Despues de la guerra de independencia ya no se uso la costumbre de
mencionar las castas, es decir de calificar a las personas por su
apariencia fisica como criollos, indios, mestizos etc. se comenzo a usar el
termino ciudadano mexicano.

Mexicano es toda la persona que nace en el territorio de Mexico.

Saludos

2015-02-07 19:26 GMT-06:00 Emilie Garcia :

> Ciudadano means "citizen", but in Mexico, what was a "mexicano"? I guess
> it meant a mestizo? Otherwise he would be "indio" and not "espanol"?. I'm
> confused.
>
> Emilie
> Port Orchard, WA
>
> > Date: Fri, 6 Feb 2015 23:14:09 -0600
> > From: glezgo65@gmail.com
> > To: research@nuestrosranchos.org
> > CC: research@lists.nuestrosranchos.org
> > Subject: Re: [Nuestros Ranchos] What does C. M. mean?
> >
> > C M = Ciudadano Mexicano
> >
> > 2015-02-06 22:44 GMT-06:00 Beverly Ewald :
> >
> > >
> > >
> > > I have recently come across some baptismal records that have the
> infant's
> > > names, followed by the initials C. M. Can anyone tell me what the C.
> M.
> > > stands for? Thanks.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > See this image:
> > >
> > >
> https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1942-20465-15470-77?cc=1860864…
> > > C48-SM9:167670301,167670302,168112901
> > >
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