ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the intersections between popular petitioning, the Municipal Palace, and everyday urban politics in Morelia, Mexico. Local city councils embodied Mexico's equivalent of the town hall. The form and the space of local government fused local and monarchical powers. City inhabitants regularly entered the Municipal Palace to conduct business with the municipal government; they settled their debts, submitted paperwork, and gathered upon the request of the city council. The city council regularly called together municipal employees, municipally licensed occupations, and other groups of residents to gather in the patio of the Municipal Palace to hear announcements and new regulations. City inhabitants regularly entered the Municipal Palace to conduct business with the municipal government; they settled their debts, submitted paperwork, and gathered upon the request of the city council. People used their access to and dialogues with municipal authorities to document and to locate spatially their connections to the community.
