For Tranquility and Order: Family and Community on Mexico's Northern Frontier, 1800–1850

Notes

Notes Since completing research for this manuscript, the court cases from the Fondo Poder Judicial , Penal (FJP) and the Fondo Poder Judicial, Civil (FJC) have moved from the Archivo Histórico de Gobierno de Sonora (AHGES) to the Archivo General del Poder Judicial (AGPJ). In the notes below, I record these documents in their current location, the AGPJ. Abbreviations Used in the Notes AGPJ Archivo General del Poder Judicial AHGES Archivo Histórico del Gobierno del Esta de Sonora, Hermosillo BSUSCP Biblioteca Central de la Universidad de Sonora, Colección Pesqueria, Hermosillo DRSW Documentary Relations of the Southwest, University of Arizona, Tucson FE Fondo Ejecutivo FJC Fondo Poder Judicial, Civil FJP Fondo Poder Judicial, Penal FN Fondo Notarios UASP University of Arizona Special Collections, Tucson Introduction 1. “[Y] que no habia venido á visar por ser unos pastores sin conocimiento y pobres” AGPJ, FJC, Hermosillo, vol. 636, “Causa criminal contra Miguel Santoyo, por haber herido á su tio Gerónimo López gravemente,” 1837, 1. 2. Victor Uribe-Uran asks if historians have exhausted debates about identifying the “long nineteenth century” as a distinct period, but Lara Putnam, Sarah Chambers, and Sueann Caulfield convincingly argue that gender research of the late colonial and early republican eras is just beginning to identify changing patterns in family relations, women’s status, honor, and gender ideologies. See Putnam, Chambers, and Caulfield, “Transformations in Honor, Status, and Law,” 1–3, 16–18; Uribe-Uran, “Introduction: Beating a Dead Horse?” xi–xix. 3. Quote from Desan, Family on Trial in Revolutionary France, 12–13; In Latin American contexts, scholars such as Sarah Chambers, Arlene Díaz, and Christine Hunefeldt have identified the courts as a nexus for gender disputes within the family and broader political developments. See Chambers, From Subjects to Citizens, 3–5; Díaz, Female Citizens , Patriarchs, and the Law in Venezuela, 6–7; Hunefeldt, Liberalism in the Bedroom, 14. 4. Jeremy Adelman and Stephen Aron debate the significance of the term “frontier” in contrast to “borderland,” using “frontier” to describe a place with undefined cultural and geographic boundaries, while “borderland” refers to a region of competition and conflict between colonial powers. David Weber has elaborated on these distinctions with the idea of a “strategic frontier” to refer to places where colonial powers vie for control. More recently, Cynthia Radding has argued that such terminological distinctions overlook the often ambiguous patterns of “encounter, assimilation, and redefinition of differences” in interethnic relationships. In this work, I generally refer to these settings as peripheries or as borderlands, but with attention to the idea that control of territory and cultural boundaries within the region were often uncertain and contentious. Nineteenth-century courtrooms became an important setting for different social groups to work out these struggles for political control and cultural influence. See Adelman and Aron, “From Borderlands to Borders,” 815; Radding, Landscapes of Power and Identity, 321–323; Weber, Bárbaros, 5. 5. Joan Scott pioneered the conceptualization of gender as a “signifier of power” among men and women in addition to between women and men. Scott, “Gender,” 1072–73. 6. For discussions of how gender history of Latin America has changed in recent decades, see Caulfield, “History of Gender,” 449–90; Dore, “Holy Family,” 104; Guy, “Future Directions in Latin American Gender History,” 1–9. 7. See Alonso, Thread of Blood, 56, 91. Cynthia Radding identifies “the nomadicsedentary divide” as a key marker of identity among indigenous peoples within Sonora. She stresses that these differences served as a point of contact as well as a boundary between nomadic peoples and village dwellers. See Radding, Landscapes of Power and Identity, 143–47. 8. AGPJ, FJP, Hermosillo, vol. 636, “Causa criminal contra Miguel Santoyo, por haber herido á su tío Gerónimo López gravamente,” 1837. 9. Charles Cutter also demonstrates how the judicial system in colonial New Mexico operated in spite of staff shortages and lack of training. See Cutter, The Legal Culture of Northern New Spain, 99–102. For examples of contemporary chroniclers who criticized Sonora’s legal system for ineptitude, see Biblioteca Central de la Universidad de Sonora, Colección Pesqueria (BCUSCP), Calvo, Descripción política, física, moral y comercial de Departamento de Sonora, 48–50; Velasco, Noticias estadísticas del Estado de Sonora, 174. 10. Nader, Harmony Ideology, 2. 11. Ibid., 109. 12. See Uribe-Uran, “Introduction: Beating a Dead Horse?” xi–xix. 13. I use Stuart Voss’s concept of notables to describe the region’s leading families, people who dominated local...