La Traza
About three decades into colonization of the New World, the conquistadores started to build and plan cities according to laws prescribed by the monarchs in the Laws of the Indies. In addition to describing other aspects of the interactions between the Spanish conquerors and the natives they encountered, these laws ordained the specific ways new settlements should be laid out. In addition to specifying the layout, the laws also required an ascriptive pattern in settlement, in which the people of higher social status lived closer to the center of the town. At every centre of a town there was to be a city plaza. Right adjacent to the plaza was a church, a town hall, and perhaps a rectory. This model was replicated in Mexico as well as in Peru in the sixteenth century. The grid was not limited to Spanish settlements; however, "Reducciones" Indian Reductions and "Congregaciones" were created in a similar grid-like manner for Indians in order to organize these populations in more manageable units for purposes of taxation, military efficiency and in order to teach Indians the way of the Spanish. Modern cities in Latin America have grown, and consequently erased or jumbled the ascriptiveness of the cityscape. The "high class" do not always live closer to the city centre, and the point-space occupied by individuals is not necessarily determined by their social status. The central plaza, the wide streets and a grid pattern are still common elements in old cities like Mexico and Puebla. Furthermore, it is not uncommon for modern towns, especially those in remote areas of Latin America, to have retained the “checkerboard layout” even to present day.
Mexico city is a good example of how these ordinances were followed in laying out a city. Previously a thriving empire, Tenochtitlan was captured and placed under Spanish rule in 1521. After news of the conquest, the king sent instructions very similar to the aforementioned Ordinance of 1513. In some parts the instructions are almost verbatim to his previous ones. The instructions were meant to direct the conqueror —Hernán Cortés—on how to lay out the city and how to allocate land to the Spaniards. It is pointed out, however, that though the king might have sent many such orders and instructions to other conquistadores, Cortés was perhaps the first one to implement them. He insisted on carrying out the building of a new city where the Indian Empire had stood, and he incorporated features of the old plaza into the new grid. Much was accomplished since he was accompanied by men familiar with the grid system and the royal instructions. The point here is that Cortés accomplished the planning and was on his way to finish the building of Mexico City before the royal ordinances addressed specifically to him even arrived. Men like Cortés and Alonso García Bravo (who is also called “the good geometer”), played a crucial role in creating a city scape of New World cities as we know them.
Read more about this topic: Spanish Colonial Architecture