Resumen
This article aims to reconstruct the tension between the first and fragile attempts of the militant mulattoes to prove their worth as loyal servants of the monarchy and also as ?decent people?, with the representations that the elites and the local functionaries had of them. For the first, however, petitions and arguments under judicial orders were not enough; it also had to be demonstrated, or at least shown in daily life, for example through their clothing, where they lived, what they did for work, and the type of family they formed. This was quite a challenge, for the elites as the functionaries of the crown kept conceiving them as people from servile origins, and part of a lazy plebe, disordered and surrendered to excesses.