Throughout the colonial period, native peoples greatly outnumbered Spaniards in Mesoamerica. How were the colonists therefore able to rule these indigenous subjects? This question can in large part be answered by the existence of a single institution: the native cabildo or municipal council. The native council consisted of many of the eligible male nobles who had performed similar tasks before the Conquest. They served as intermediaries between their communities and Spanish officials, especially the Spanish alcalde mayor, who acted as a resident first-instance judge and tax collector in a given jurisdiction. With his supporting staff of deputies, notaries, and translators, he interacted regularly with members of the native cabildo. Spaniards asserted a monopoly on regional politics, creating a network of colonial political jurisdictions across New Spain; but by and large they left the business of day-to-day politics and government at the local level to the old native ruling classes. This fact served to strengthen the centrality of the semiautonomous Mesoamerican community – called the altepetl in Nahuatl, the ñuu in Mixtec, the cah in Yucatec Maya, and so on. It also limited the nature of relations among the various communities, however.

The adoption of the Spanish-style municipal council by the hereditary nobility of New Spain meant that, despite the destruction of the Mexica imperial capital of Tenochtitlan in 1521, and the construction of Mexico City upon its ruins, a Mexica altepetl of Tenochtitlan (also called Mexico) continued to exist within the new city – complete with its own ruling council, divided into four parts along traditional lines.