A voice of her own : women, men, and family in Northern Mexico, 1805-1840

Abstract

This thesis reconstructs the personal lives of men and women from an elite family in Mexico by analyzing what they revealed of themselves through their correspondence between 1805 and 1840. Historians have noted the influence of the great landed families in the economic and political development of Latin America, but have given very little attention to the personal dynamics within these families. This private realm has not been a focus of study because of an assumed lack of primary resources, such as diaries and personal letters. This work differs from other studies on the family in that I use the extensive collection of personal letters of the Sanchez-Navarro family from Coahuila, Mexico. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Sanchez-Navarro's owned and operated several haciendas in this region. They were primarily sheep ranching operations, which in turn sold mutton or wool to central areas in Mexico. Because ranching was a time-consuming occupation that required the constant attention of the family patriarch, Jose Melchor, he spent much of his time traveling between his various properties. Consequently, Melchor wrote to his family extensively. The letters written to and from his wife Apolonia Berain, his daughter Vicenta, and his son-in-law Rafael Delgado form the basis of this study. These four people, their activities, and most importantly the manner in which they interacted with one another, form the primary focus of this work