Disobedient Daughters and the Liberal State: Generational Conflicts Over Marriage Choice in Working Class Families in Nineteenth-Century Oaxaca, Mexico

Abstract

Two years in a row (1885 and 1886) Señora Teresa, a native and resident of Oaxaca de Juárez, pleaded with the court to prosecute her daughter's suitors. The first time, after seeing Primitiva chatting with Juan in the street and finding his love letter in her home, she grew apprehensive. She hurried to court when Primitiva disappeared that evening to accuse the young man of seducing and abducting her 13 year old daughter. Police officers apprehended the young couple and the judge listened to their testimonies. Primitiva swore that she was 16 years old and had run away to her aunt's home because she feared her mother's wrath at discovering the love missive. She further stated that she had in fact broken up with Juan some weeks earlier and that they had never engaged in sexual relations. The following year, Primitiva eloped with a different suitor and her mother surfaced in the historical record once more. This time she indicated that she saw her daughter conversing with Francisco in her home's doorway and after he spirited her naïve daughter away, he returned the next day to taunt her husband, boasting that “he took Primitiva because he was a man.” In both cases, Primitiva's mother demanded swift justice. She asked the judge to prosecute her daughter's seducers to the full extent of the law, arguing that Primitiva lacked the maturity to choose her mate wisely. Assenting to the indignant mother's wishes, judges ordered police officers to pick up both young men to face charges ofrapto(abduction by seduction) in municipal court. In the first case, the judge dropped the suit for lack of merit. In the latter case, the judge sided with Señora Teresa's minor daughter, in effect emancipating her from parental authority by allowing her to begin family life with her second suitor, Francisco.

Wedding Ceremony, Religion, and Tradition: The Shertok Family Debate, 1922

“…Conflicts about marriage are on many occasions the result of intergenerational gaps (Hayhoe 2005;Sloan 2007), and one cannot ignore the gaps seen in the stances presented above. On the one hand, there are young people whose attitudes derive from their contrast with those of their parents; on the other hand, the adult-the mother-seeks the respect of her children and the continuity of the beliefs and way of life that she and the father of the family had handed down to them.…”