José Tomás de Cuéllar’s novel Los fuereños (The Outsiders) appeared in 1883. It follows a family from the provinces through Mexico City. A fuereño is a person from outside.
In the novel, the people of the capital treat the family as “simplemente fuereños” (simply outsiders), as a 2020 study in the journal Connotas notes. UNAM Global writes that the urban middle class saw such newcomers as “una amenaza para sus aspiraciones” (a threat to their aspirations).