Adjudicating Morality: Estupro in Veracruz, Mexico 1925–1950

Abstract

ADJUDICATING MORALITY: ESTUPRO IN VERACRUZ, MEXICO 1925-1950 ∗ Gregory Swedberg Manhattanville College During Mexico’s revolution (1910-1920), the Constitutionalists enacted new laws that afforded women greater rights in the family and the workplace . Women attained conditional marital equality in the 1917 Family Relations Law, which was later expanded in the 1931 Federal Civil Code. They achieved new rights in the workplace including maternity leave and equal pay for equal work regardless of gender.1 In addition, the state’s legalization of divorce, including no fault divorce in 1917, (1914 in Veracruz) created opportunities for women to challenge men’s familial power. Despite inconsistent enforcement and imperfections in the legal system, the transition from Porfirian authoritarianism (1876-1910) to postrevolutionary corporatist consolidation created some opportunities for women to demand greater inclusion, both politically and socially. Yet despite initial legal victories for women in both the family and workplace, reformed penal codes continued to include honesty and chastity as key factors in determining the outcome of cases involving rape and estupro. Under Spanish colonial law, estupro (from the Latin stuprum, which means to disgrace or defilement) was defined as an act of sexual intercourse with a virgin, which involved seduction or deceit.2 Because girls were part of the family patrimony, the accused could marry the victim or provide compensation.3 Colonial law and codes of honor survived into the republican period and shaped Mexico’s first penal code. In 1831, a committee charged with drafting a criminal code divided criminality into two categories. The first pertained to crimes against security, order, and “tranquility” and the second addressed personal safety, good name, property and honor. Veracruz was the first state to enact a criminal code in 1835, which addressed crimes against “honor.”4 The outcome of litigation involving sexual abuse or seduction (crimes involving honor) was often determined by chastity and public reputation.5 In this essay I argue that despite nascent feminist movements and progressive legal changes which elevated women’s status in society, the Mexican Revolution marked continuity with, rather than a complete break from, colonial and early republican perceptions of sexual violence. Both conservative and liberal postrevolutionary officials were more concerned with monitoring women’s sexual practices and maintaining the integrity and legitimacy of the family unit than they were with addressing violence against women. Officials, who championed the need to educate and protect C 2011 Southeastern Council on Latin American Studies and Wiley Periodicals, Inc 33 The Latin Americanist, June 2011 women and girls, were often reluctant to impede on men’s cultural rights to control women’s bodies, which is especially evident in cases of estupro involving girls with dubious reputations. This article is based on 23 cases of sexual abuse (1925-1950) I found in the Archivo General del Estado de Veracruz. These cases, while not entirely conclusive, provide insight into the intersection between tradition and law in postrevolutionary Veracruz and the challenges that families confronted (especially single mothers) if they decided to seek legal recourse on behalf of their daughters.6 While many scholars have explored sexual violence in both the colonial and republican periods, few studies have explored regions outside of Mexico City during the immediate postrevolutionary period. Veracruz long noted for its labor unrest, also had many areas which were conservative strongholds during the nineteenth century. The salience of Catholic tradition continued to resonate deeply in many of Veracruz’s communities long after the guns of the Mexican Revolution fell silent. Alan Knight reminds us that “Laws, political institutions, property relations all changed—were ‘revolutionized,’ perhaps—but they often managed to coexist with inherited traditions. Radicals like Adalberto Tejeda [governor of Veracruz (1920-1924, 1928-1932)] were at pains to place themselves within old historical traditions.”7 Catholic traditions conflicted with trenchant anticlerical politicians who challenged the power of the Catholic Church. Moreover, many officials, Tejeda included, supported eugenics, sterilization, (Veracruz had the only sterilization law in Mexico) sex education , and prohibition of alcohol.8 These policies dovetailed with the rhetoric of women’s emancipation and their fight for dignity. Therefore, Veracruz provides a fascinating glimpse into the clash between tradition and modernity as both shaped local culture and legal process.9...