The majority of these essays originated from a Dellplain symposium, entitled “Migration in Colonial Latin America,” held at Syracuse University in October of 1986. On that occasion eight of the present contributors presented papers, and six other persons provided comments, criticisms, and suggestions. All of the foreign guests and their American hosts enjoyed the luxury of continuous discussion, both during the formal sessions, and even more vociferously over meals and drinks, usually late into the night.

The symposium's members then migrated to Boston to participate in a special session under the same title, during the national meeting of the Latin American Studies Association. At the new locale three other papers were presented, and the symposium participants were able to benefit from the many questions and comments that were forthcoming from a wider, multidisciplinary audience. We all left Boston quite determined to hear, read, and speak no more of migration for several weeks!

In these essays, the authors deal primarily with internal migration within colonial Spanish America. Only occasionally is the migration to and from that continental region mentioned. But internal migration is here established as a fundamental and highly significant component of socio-economic development. Each author brings to the topic new data, new interpretations, and new insights from widely differing colonial contexts and disciplinary perspectives. Whether the migrants are adolescents migrating for schooling, rural laborers searching for jobs, or Indians fleeing the burdens of tribute payment…all demonstrate the fact that to migrate in the colonial world was often a necessity.