Mestizos in the law of the Indies: the bar on office, and the crown jurist's argument against it

Spanish American law barred people of mixed descent from notaryships, from the protectorship of the Indians, from holy orders and from encomiendas — and the crown's own leading jurist printed, in the same chapter, that to exclude them "solo por la sangre mezclada" would be a hard and inhuman thing. Both halves are on one page of the Política Indiana, with the hostile stereotype, the tribute rule and its perverse family effects beside them.