A historical document or legal certificate, especially in Spanish-speaking countries; also a tax certificate or identity document.
From Spanish and Portuguese 'cédula,' from Latin 'schedula' (small piece of paper), diminutive of 'scheda.' The word traveled from Rome through medieval Spain into colonial Americas.
Cédulas were the IDs of the colonial world—Spanish colonizers issued them to track populations in the Americas, creating a document system that influenced how identity papers work in Latin America today!
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