Alcalde Ordinario
Alcalde ordinario refers to the judicial and administrative officials in the cabildos in the Spanish Viceroyalties in the Americas during the times of the Spanish Empire in the 16th through 19th centuries. Always existing in pairs, they were called ''Alcalde de primer voto'' (roughly, "first mayor") and ''Alcalde de segundo voto'' (roughly, "second mayor"). The alcalde ordinario was a judicial magistrate who, with some exceptions, was responsible for the administration of civil and criminal justice within their municipal jurisdiction. Historical background Spanish cabildos in the Americas were the local government institutions in the American cities founded by the Spanish. Their jurisdiction included not only the urban area of the city but the adjacent rural areas as well. This jurisdiction was roughly equivalent to today's concept of "municipio" in many countries. When within the rural expanse of a cabildo a cluster of human dwellers formed, it would not be considered a villa ...
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Cabildo (council)
A cabildo () or ayuntamiento () was a Spanish colonial, and early post-colonial, administrative council which governed a municipality. Cabildos were sometimes appointed, sometimes elected; but they were considered to be representative of all land-owning heads of household (''vecinos''). The colonial cabildo was essentially the same as the one developed in medieval Castile. The cabildo was the legal representative of the municipality—and its ''vecinos''—before the Crown, therefore it was among the first institutions established by the conquistadors themselves after, or even before, taking over an area. For example, Hernán Cortés established La Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz to free himself from the authority of the Governor of Cuba. The word ''cabildo'' has the same Latin root (''capitulum'') as the English word chapter, and in fact, is also the Spanish word for a cathedral chapter. Historically the term ''ayuntamie