Buena sangre y hábitos espa？oles: repensando a Alonso de Silva y Diego de Torres

this article explores the porous border between mestizos and indigenous people in the sixteenth-century new kingdom of granada by inquiring into how mestizo aspirants to muisca cacicazgos presented themselves and were characterized by their adversaries in their negotiation of relationships with the spanish crown, local encomenderos, and their own subjects. the reflection focuses particularly on two men: don alonso de silva, cacique of tibasosa and don diego de torres, cacique of turmequé, both of whom were sons of women belonging to muisca succession lines, but were raised in their spanish paternal households, received an education befitting that of elite mestizos, and used their extensive command of legal literacy to achieve chiefly status. their aspirations ran counter to those of other elite mestizos of the time, who sought social acceptance in the spanish society of santafé and tunja. in contrast, these two consistently described themselves as privileged candidates for elite indigenous status by resorting to markers of christian and iberian identity.