JEFFREY M. SHUMWAY. The Case of the Ugly Suitor and Other Histories of Love, Gender, and Nation in Buenos Aires, 1776-1870. (Engendering Latin America.) Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. 2005. Pp. x, 200. $29.95

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In 1776, as colonies on the North American seacoast declared independence from their British rulers, the reverse was taking place at the other end of the Atlantic basin: the Spanish crown established a new viceroyalty with Buenos Aires as its capital. That same year, the Spanish monarch issued a new law on marriage that was extended to the American colonies two years later. The legislation granted parents the right to prevent the matrimony of their progeny to partners of inferior social status. It also entitled the offspring to challenge parental opposition in civil court. Jeffrey M. Shumway's book draws its title from one of these cases, in which a father objected to his daughter's suitor on the basis of—among other complaints—his physical appearance. These court cases and others related to child custody provide the author with more than a catchy title. They offer him a rich, and suitable, source to examine prevailing attitudes regarding family, marriage, women, and status during a period that runs from the inception of the law, through its survival after Argentine independence, to its abrogation with the creation of a national civil code in 1870. Criminal cases deal with aberrations, with behavior that—in spite of its apparent ordinariness—is actually statistically rare (the reason criminologists find it so difficult to explain crime trends even today when data abound by comparison to the nineteenth century). Marriage, however, is—as an event—only less common than birth and death, and as experience arguably more common than any other social relation. It is true that not all Argentine parents objected to their children's choice of spouse, and fewer children challenged their parents' objection in court; Shumway does not tell us how common the practice was or the socioeconomic distribution of the individuals involved. But the cases he examines deal with prevalent ideals and quotidian realities and concerns, include people of diverse social backgrounds, and, because of the nature of litigation, necessarily highlight divergent opinions.