''Ayuntamiento'' ()In other languages of Spain: * ca, ajuntament (). * gl, concello (). * eu, udaletxea (). is the general term for the town council, or ''cabildo'', of a municipality or, sometimes, as is often the case in Spain and Latin America, for the municipality itself. is mainly used in Spain; in Latin America is also for municipal governing bodies, especially the executive ones, where the legislative body and the executive body are two separate entities. In

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

-speaking parts of Spain, municipalities generally use the Catalan cognate, , while Galician ones use the word ,

Astur-Leonese Asturleonese ( ast, Asturlleonés; es, Asturleonés; pt, Asturo-leonês; mwl, Asturlhionés) is a Romance language spoken primarily in northwestern Spain, namely in the historical regions and Spain's modern-day autonomous communities of Asturi ...

and Basque . Since is a

metonym Metonymy () is a figure of speech in which a concept is referred to by the name of something closely associated with that thing or concept. Etymology The words ''metonymy'' and ''metonym'' come from grc, μετωνυμία, 'a change of name' ...

for the building in which the council meets, it also translates to "city/

town hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

" in English.

Historically

With the eighteenth-century Bourbon Reforms in

New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the Am ...

, which created intendancies and weakened the power of the viceroy, the ''ayuntamientos'' "became the institution representing the interests of the local and regional oligarchical groups then setting deep roots into their territories." The Spanish Constitution of 1812 called for the transformation of the ayuntamiento, previously dominated by elites, into a representative institution with elections. Article 310 called for the establishment of an ayuntamiento for all settlements with 1,000 inhabitants. The term was often preceded by the word ("most excellent"), when referring to the council. This phrase is often abbreviated "''Exc.^mo Ay.^to'' ". Other names for ayuntamiento have been ''casa de cabildo'', ''casa capitular'', ''casa consistorial'' and ''casa del concejo''.

Local legislative body

In Latin America several terms exist for the legislative bodies of municipalities. The term is used in Argentina, Chile,

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

, and Peru. In Mexico the term is for the

council A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or natio ...

(which refers to itself as the , or ). Puerto Rican municipalities have a ''legislatura municipal''. In Peru the term is never used; instead, it is , or (district council). Executive functions in most of these countries is handled by an executive , the mayor (not to be confused with the historic , who was a magistrate).

Historically

Local legislative body

See also

References

Notes

Further reading