Gente de razón (, "people of reason" or "rational people") is a
Spanish term used in colonial
Spanish America and modern
Hispanic America to refer to people who were culturally
Hispanicized. It was a social distinction that existed alongside the racial categories of the
sistema de castas.
Indigenous peoples (
indios or "Indians"), who maintained their culture and lived in their legally recognized communities (the
repúblicas de indios), and
mixed-race people (the
castas), especially the poor in urban centers, were generally considered not to be
gente de razón.