Kinship and Incestuous Crime in Colonial Guatemala by Sarah N. Saffa

Author:Sarah N. Saffa [Saffa, Sarah N.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Latin America, Central America, General, Modern, Social History, Women
ISBN: 9781000172645
Google: pXjtDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2020-09-01T01:39:01+00:00

Thus, Pedro believed that Petrona’s new awareness that he was not her (real) father contributed to her willingness to testify falsely against him. In other words, a (real) daughter, in this case one that shared a blood tie, would have behaved differently.

Don Joaquín Mariscal, the procurador de número (municipal lawyer) who assisted Pedro, spoke in a similar manner. Rhetorically asking why Petrona would levantar el cuello (“raise her head”) against his client, he argued, “She would not have dared such disrespect if her aunt Antonia had not encouraged her insubordination, making her realize that she was not his daughter.”44 Mariscal’s requests to the magistrate included the release of his client and an order for Petrona to se sugete á su padrastro (“respect her stepfather”). Thus, a daughter—as opposed to a stepdaughter—would not display contempt for her father, and a stepdaughter might require a reminder that a stepfather was due the same respect. Here again, it is apparent that the discourse of respect would discourage some children from going to the authorities. Indeed, Petrona’s almost fatalistic attitude towards the sexual abuse from Pedro appears in her comment to her aunt about the future of her little sister.

The importance of consanguineous relatedness to truth telling also appeared in the aforementioned case against don Juan Manuel and María Josefa Dardón for father-daughter incest (Case 15). Even though María Josefa testified to her father’s use of her “outside the vessel” and his responsibility for her deflowerment, don Juan Manuel completely denied the accusation. In a written document, he even proceeded to disown his family because of their behavior, including his daughter’s testimony against him. In a section of this rather lengthy text, he wrote,

…I am not a married man nor do I have any children because a woman that I had in my company, who was caring for me for some time, left and took her children as soon as she got bored of caring for me…. The girl that accuses me of such enormous crimes is the daughter of the woman that cared for me and is named María Josefa. She is not my daughter because, if she were, she would not dishonor her father with such lack of restraint…. If I were her father—like she says—le tirara la sangre [i.e. blood would drive her] to come for her father upon seeing him in the calamity that he is and imprisoned for such great crimes of which she accuses him. Thus, I take as null her false statement. And though [María Josefa] considers herself the daughter of Micaela [Juan Manuel’s wife], she is not because, if she were, she would not try—nor would she have tried—to separate her father from the side of her mother knowing that they were married. Therefore, she is not a daughter but rather a pepe [a non-biological child reared in the home].45

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