"Jurisdictional Havens": The Geography of Indigenous Identity in Mexico

Abstract

This paper argues that jurisdictional havens-areas where overlapping authority creates competition among rulers-granting subjects greater prerogatives shaping the geographic distribution of ethnic minority groups. We test this theory with the persistence of Indigenous identity in Mexico. Using the eighteenth-century administrative geography and a grid-cell design of Mexico, we first identify havens where royal and religious jurisdictions overlap. We show that, since at least 1800, these areas are more likely to sustain multiple markers of Indigenous identity (language, self-identification, and communal land tenure) than comparable non-haven areas. In contrast, grid-cells with discontinuities in enforcement costs (equidistant) instead better predict the formation of subnational borders. We address endogeneity concerns using within-grid comparisons, placebo tests using shifts in authorities’ headquarters, balance on geographic traits, and we present historical evidence from colonial judicial claims and administrative records consistent with greater inter-ruler competition and legal ambiguity in haven areas. Overall, our results highlight the importance of spatial position of competing authorities to explain the long-run persistence of Indigenous identities in Mexico.