Crime and the Administration of Justice in Buenos Aires 1785–1853 by Osvaldo Barreneche (review)

The Latin Americanist, Spring 2007 it’snot some self-consciousliterary choice, or whatever, I insert to make some intellectual point” (11).Similarly, Los Bros. Hernandez (Jaimeand Gilbert) started publishing their comic books in black-and-white because of economic needs: ”We couldn’t afford to do a color comic because it would have killed us. And we wouldn’t sell. That’s how it started out” (122). The prevalence of Chicano issues in the works of these writers and artists is intended to educate the general public, both Chicano and non-Chicano. Jaime Hernandez’s comics “aim to communicate a vision of the Chicano community so readers can see what it’s really all about” (124). Luis Alberto Urrea’s docu-journalistic writings in Across the Wire:Life and Hard Times on tlze Mexican Border and By the Lake of Sleeping Children:The Secret Life of the Mexican Border illustrate the life experiences and abject poverty of Mexican-USborder people: ”In writing Across the Wire,” the author confesses, I took on this task tohumanize people that no one-not Mexicans,Chicanos, or gringos-cared about: the garbage pickers in the Tijuana dump. It was a pretty hard task, but when you realize that they’re human beings with their own dreams and desires-and you don’t have to romanticize them, you don’t have to prettify them, just tell their human story -it’ll move people. (267) The detailed bibliographies at the end of each chapter, which encompass the titles of works published, essays, memoirs, children’s literature, critical studies, interviews and reviews, serve as reference points for those interested in Chicano literature and art. Spilling the Beans is a good read for everyone. The life stories are inspiring for the general public. Academics can enjoy reading about who’s who in the Chicano literary and artistic world, and aspiring writers can take note of the experiences of these great people when pursuing their own goals. Strongly recommended for public as well as academic libraries. Liliana Wendorff Department of English, Theatre and Languages University of North Carolina at Pembroke CRIME AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE IN BUENOS AIRES 1785-1853. B Y OSVALDO BARRENECHE. LINCOLN: U NEBRASKA P, 2006, P. 182, $65.00. Seeking safety and public order, even at the expense of due process and other basic republican principles, are unsettling demands affecting the criminal system in present Argentina. Through an excellent historiographic reconstruction, Osvaldo Barrenecheshowshow early these traitscharacterized the nation’s institutional landscape. With a focus on the city of Buenos Aires, the author examines institutions and procedural traditions in the administration of criminal justice during the transition from colonial rule to the organization of Argentina’s modern republic. Barreneche follows recent historical scholarship on processes of state formation that stresses linkages between ”the consolidation of nation-states and the increasing regulations Book Reviews of internal conflicts by such states” (3).The daily regulation of conflicts by BuenosAires’penal system,in which the author estimates everyday practices, procedural traditions, andthe law asequally important,thus turnsintoa prism to scrutinize the emergence of the modern state in Argentina. Well written and organized, this book will interest scholars concerned with processes of state formation, state institutions, legal history, policing, the rule of law, and especially with the challenges and possibilities of their democratization in Latin America. Three clusters of problems articulate Barreneche’sbook. The first assesses the potential of transitional periods to configure a society’s institutional landscape, in the tension between creativity, experimentation, and conservative demands for framing a stable order. The second ties into the dynamics of competition and contestation surrounding processes of state formation and reform. In this light, the courtroom vividly appears as an arena of conflict, struggle, and negotiation between groups, ultimately open to contingent outcomes. Third, touching the nerve of the relations between justice and republican governance, the book interrogates the possibilities of achievingabalancebetween ”effectiveresultsand dueprocess”(2).Convinced by the heuristic possibilities of studying processes of state formation from within, the author examines judicial documents for “continuities, variation, and adaptation” (4) in the administration of justice. The penal system’s institutional design, its procedural traditions, forms of gathering evidence, rationales of judicial interrogation, interpretation...