Peninsular, Spanish Peninsular, plural Peninsulares, also called Gachupín, or Chapetón, any of the colonial residents of Latin America from the 16th through the early 19th centuries who had been born in Spain. The name refers to the Iberian Peninsula. Among the American-born in Mexico the peninsulars were contemptuously called gachupines (“those with spurs”) and in South America, chapetones (“tenderfeet”). They enjoyed the special favour of the Spanish crown and were appointed to most of the leading civil and ecclesiastical posts under the colonial regime. As a result, the creoles, or persons of Spanish ancestry born in the Americas, were relegated …(100 of 165 words)