Given Guatemala’s record of human rights abuses, its legal system has often been portrayed as illegitimate and anemic. I Ask for Justice
challenges that perception by demonstrating that even though the legal
system was not always just, rural Guatemalans considered it a legitimate
arbiter of their grievances and an important tool for advancing their
agendas. As both a mirror and an instrument of the state, the judicial
system simultaneously illuminates the limits of state rule and the
state’s ability to co-opt Guatemalans by hearing their voices in court.
Against the backdrop of two of Latin America’s most oppressive regimes—the dictatorships of Manuel Estrada Cabrera (1898–1920) and General Jorge Ubico (1931–1944)—David Carey Jr. explores the ways in which indigenous people, women, and the poor used Guatemala’s legal system to manipulate the boundaries between legality and criminality. Using court records that are surprisingly rich in Maya women’s voices, he analyzes how bootleggers, cross-dressers, and other litigants crafted their narratives to defend their human rights. Revealing how nuances of power, gender, ethnicity, class, and morality were constructed and contested, this history of crime and criminality demonstrates how Maya men and women attempted to improve their socioeconomic positions and to press for their rights with strategies that ranged from the pursuit of illicit activities to the deployment of the legal system.
- See more at: http://utpress.utexas.edu/index.php/books/carias#sthash.pbETBkCD.dpuf
Against the backdrop of two of Latin America’s most oppressive regimes—the dictatorships of Manuel Estrada Cabrera (1898–1920) and General Jorge Ubico (1931–1944)—David Carey Jr. explores the ways in which indigenous people, women, and the poor used Guatemala’s legal system to manipulate the boundaries between legality and criminality. Using court records that are surprisingly rich in Maya women’s voices, he analyzes how bootleggers, cross-dressers, and other litigants crafted their narratives to defend their human rights. Revealing how nuances of power, gender, ethnicity, class, and morality were constructed and contested, this history of crime and criminality demonstrates how Maya men and women attempted to improve their socioeconomic positions and to press for their rights with strategies that ranged from the pursuit of illicit activities to the deployment of the legal system.
- See more at: http://utpress.utexas.edu/index.php/books/carias#sthash.pbETBkCD.dpuf
Given Guatemala’s record of human rights abuses, its legal system has often been portrayed as illegitimate and anemic. I Ask for Justice challenges that perception by demonstrating that even though the legal system was not always just, rural Guatemalans considered it a legitimate arbiter of their grievances and an important tool for advancing their agendas. As both a mirror and an instrument of the state, the judicial system simultaneously illuminates the limits of state rule and the state’s ability to co-opt Guatemalans by hearing their voices in court.
Against the backdrop of two of Latin America’s most oppressive regimes—the dictatorships of Manuel Estrada Cabrera (1898–1920) and General Jorge Ubico (1931–1944)—David Carey Jr. explores the ways in which indigenous people, women, and the poor used Guatemala’s legal system to manipulate the boundaries between legality and criminality. Using court records that are surprisingly rich in Maya women’s voices, he analyzes how bootleggers, cross-dressers, and other litigants crafted their narratives to defend their human rights. Revealing how nuances of power, gender, ethnicity, class, and morality were constructed and contested, this history of crime and criminality demonstrates how Maya men and women attempted to improve their socioeconomic positions and to press for their rights with strategies that ranged from the pursuit of illicit activities to the deployment of the legal system.
Given Guatemala’s record of human rights abuses, its legal system has often been portrayed as illegitimate and anemic. I Ask for Justice
challenges that perception by demonstrating that even though the legal
system was not always just, rural Guatemalans considered it a legitimate
arbiter of their grievances and an important tool for advancing their
agendas. As both a mirror and an instrument of the state, the judicial
system simultaneously illuminates the limits of state rule and the
state’s ability to co-opt Guatemalans by hearing their voices in court.
Against the backdrop of two of Latin America’s most oppressive regimes—the dictatorships of Manuel Estrada Cabrera (1898–1920) and General Jorge Ubico (1931–1944)—David Carey Jr. explores the ways in which indigenous people, women, and the poor used Guatemala’s legal system to manipulate the boundaries between legality and criminality. Using court records that are surprisingly rich in Maya women’s voices, he analyzes how bootleggers, cross-dressers, and other litigants crafted their narratives to defend their human rights. Revealing how nuances of power, gender, ethnicity, class, and morality were constructed and contested, this history of crime and criminality demonstrates how Maya men and women attempted to improve their socioeconomic positions and to press for their rights with strategies that ranged from the pursuit of illicit activities to the deployment of the legal system.
- See more at: http://utpress.utexas.edu/index.php/books/carias#sthash.pbETBkCD.dpuf
Follow the link for reviews and the TOC. Project Muse subscribers may access full content here.Against the backdrop of two of Latin America’s most oppressive regimes—the dictatorships of Manuel Estrada Cabrera (1898–1920) and General Jorge Ubico (1931–1944)—David Carey Jr. explores the ways in which indigenous people, women, and the poor used Guatemala’s legal system to manipulate the boundaries between legality and criminality. Using court records that are surprisingly rich in Maya women’s voices, he analyzes how bootleggers, cross-dressers, and other litigants crafted their narratives to defend their human rights. Revealing how nuances of power, gender, ethnicity, class, and morality were constructed and contested, this history of crime and criminality demonstrates how Maya men and women attempted to improve their socioeconomic positions and to press for their rights with strategies that ranged from the pursuit of illicit activities to the deployment of the legal system.
- See more at: http://utpress.utexas.edu/index.php/books/carias#sthash.pbETBkCD.dpuf
“Based
on hundreds of criminal records from the Department of Chimaltenango,
Guatemala, David Carey Jr.’s new book makes a signal contribution to
understanding gender relations and the role of criminal courts in the
operation of authoritarian politics during the first half of the
twentieth century. Every page of this well-written, sophisticated study
rewards a careful reading. In Carey’s hands, criminal litigation becomes
a mirror of the Guatemalan state as well as one of its chief
instruments, a resource for humble litigants thirsty for justice as well
as an imposition. Best of all, the voices and actions of scores of Maya
women come through in remarkable detail—vulnerable and constrained, but
not simply marginalized in the dictators’ rush to control and
modernize. Readers will find that Rigoberta Menchú had many older
sisters in the defense of their human rights.”
—William B. Taylor, Sonne Professor Emeritus of History, University of California, Berkeley
“Drinking, thieving, wife-beating, murder, infanticide, and abortion—the stuff of everyday life in rural Guatemala and the subjects of David Carey’s excellent I Ask for Justice: Maya Women, Dictators, and Crime in Guatemala, 1898–1944. Carey situates his granular, almost microscopic archival research and impressive knowledge of Mayan life within a broad conceptual frame, producing a fascinating and important study. With this book, Carey has brought Guatemalan historiography to a new level of sophistication.”
—Greg Grandin, author of The Last Colonial Massacre: Latin America in the Cold War and Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City
- See more at: http://utpress.utexas.edu/index.php/books/carias#sthash.pbETBkCD.dpuf
—William B. Taylor, Sonne Professor Emeritus of History, University of California, Berkeley
“Drinking, thieving, wife-beating, murder, infanticide, and abortion—the stuff of everyday life in rural Guatemala and the subjects of David Carey’s excellent I Ask for Justice: Maya Women, Dictators, and Crime in Guatemala, 1898–1944. Carey situates his granular, almost microscopic archival research and impressive knowledge of Mayan life within a broad conceptual frame, producing a fascinating and important study. With this book, Carey has brought Guatemalan historiography to a new level of sophistication.”
—Greg Grandin, author of The Last Colonial Massacre: Latin America in the Cold War and Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City
- See more at: http://utpress.utexas.edu/index.php/books/carias#sthash.pbETBkCD.dpuf
