While Yucatecan elites consistently characterized the Caste War as a racial conflict and labelled the rebels as Indians, the insurgents were in fact a fairly mixed population. Ample evidence from contemporary observers shows that many non-Indians were found in the rebel ranks. The rebels employed terms of self-identification that reflect their mixed social and ethnic composition and religious affiliation, generally referring to themselves as cristiano’b (Christians), otsilo’b (poor), masewalo’b (commoner) or kruso’b (the crosses) and not as Indians or Maya. It comes as no surprise that legally most rank and file rebels were Indians, as revealed by their Maya surnames. Legal Indians were overrepresented among the rural lower classes, the insurgents’ main social base. In addition, the preponderance of Indians simply mirrors Yucatán’s demographic structure, since the bulk of the rebels came from areas where this group outnumbered vecinos by three or four to one.