Vecino
'Vecino' means either "neighbour", or resident of a location in modern Spanish. Historically in the Spanish Empire it referred instead to a householder of considerable social position in a town or a city, and was similar to "freeman" or "freeholder." == Historical use == In the Spanish Empire, a vecino was a person who had a house and home in a town or city and contributed to its expenses, not necessarily living nearby; or a local figure of some worth but not an aristocrat, often the encomendero holding land in the surrounding countryside with a house within a nearby city.