New from Stanford University Press:
Fatal Love: Spousal Killers, Law, and Punishment in the Late Colonial Spanish Atlantic, by
Victor M. Uribe-Uran (Florida International University). A description from the Press:
One night in December 1800, in the distant mission outpost of San
Antonio in northern Mexico, Eulalia Californio and her lover Primo
plotted the murder of her abusive husband. While the victim was
sleeping, Prio and his brother tied a rope around Juan Californio's
neck. One of them sat on his body while the other pulled on the rope and
the woman, grabbing her husband by the legs, pulled in the opposite
direction. After Juan Californio suffocated, Eulalia ran to the mission
and reported that her husband had choked while chewing tobacco.
Suspicious, the mission priests reported the crime to the authorities in
charge of the nearest presidio.
For historians,
spousal murders are significant for what they reveal about social and
family history, in particular the hidden history of day-to-day gender
relations, conflicts, crimes, and punishments. Fatal Love
examines this phenomenon in the late colonial Spanish Atlantic, focusing
on incidents occurring in New Spain (colonial Mexico), New Granada
(colonial Colombia), and Spain from the 1740s to the 1820s. In the more
than 200 cases consulted, it considers not only the social features of
the murders, but also the legal discourses and judicial practices
guiding the historical treatment of spousal murders, helping us
understand the historical intersection of domestic violence, private and
state/church patriarchy, and the law.
A few blurbs:
"A highly valuable contribution to the history of social violence and Spanish law both in the metropolis and the colonies."
—Eric Van Young
"This
book is exceptional in its archival coverage as well as its
historiographical depth. Its revisionist interpretations of existing
scholarship will be welcomed by scholars."
—Ann Twinam
More information is available
here.
