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I Ask for Justice : Maya Women, Dictators, and Crime in Guatemala, 1898–1944 / David Carey.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextSeries: Louann Atkins Temple Women & Culture SeriesPublisher: Austin : University of Texas Press, [2021]Copyright date: ©2013Description: 1 online resource (363 p.)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780292748699
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 364.3/74089974207281 23
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources:
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Illustrations, Maps, and Tables -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: -- 1. Dictators, Indígenas, and the Legal System: Intersections of Race and Crime -- 2. “Rough and Thorny Terrain”: Moonshine, Gender, and Ethnicity -- 3. “Productive Activity”: Female Vendors and Ladino Authorities in the Market -- 4. Unnatural Mothers and Reproductive Crimes: Infanticide, Abortion, and Cross-Dressing -- 5. Wives in Danger and Dangerous Women: Domestic and Female Violence -- 6. Honorable Subjects: Public Insults, Family Feuds, and State Power -- Conclusion: Emboldened and Constrained -- Appendices -- Notes -- Glossary -- Bibliography -- Index
Summary: Given Guatemala’s record of human rights abuses, its legal system has often been portrayed as illegitimate and anemic. I Ask for Justice challenges that perception by demonstrating that even though the legal system was not always just, rural Guatemalans considered it a legitimate arbiter of their grievances and an important tool for advancing their agendas. As both a mirror and an instrument of the state, the judicial system simultaneously illuminates the limits of state rule and the state’s ability to co-opt Guatemalans by hearing their voices in court. Against the backdrop of two of Latin America’s most oppressive regimes—the dictatorships of Manuel Estrada Cabrera (1898–1920) and General Jorge Ubico (1931–1944)—David Carey Jr. explores the ways in which indigenous people, women, and the poor used Guatemala’s legal system to manipulate the boundaries between legality and criminality. Using court records that are surprisingly rich in Maya women’s voices, he analyzes how bootleggers, cross-dressers, and other litigants crafted their narratives to defend their human rights. Revealing how nuances of power, gender, ethnicity, class, and morality were constructed and contested, this history of crime and criminality demonstrates how Maya men and women attempted to improve their socioeconomic positions and to press for their rights with strategies that ranged from the pursuit of illicit activities to the deployment of the legal system.

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Illustrations, Maps, and Tables -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: -- 1. Dictators, Indígenas, and the Legal System: Intersections of Race and Crime -- 2. “Rough and Thorny Terrain”: Moonshine, Gender, and Ethnicity -- 3. “Productive Activity”: Female Vendors and Ladino Authorities in the Market -- 4. Unnatural Mothers and Reproductive Crimes: Infanticide, Abortion, and Cross-Dressing -- 5. Wives in Danger and Dangerous Women: Domestic and Female Violence -- 6. Honorable Subjects: Public Insults, Family Feuds, and State Power -- Conclusion: Emboldened and Constrained -- Appendices -- Notes -- Glossary -- Bibliography -- Index

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Given Guatemala’s record of human rights abuses, its legal system has often been portrayed as illegitimate and anemic. I Ask for Justice challenges that perception by demonstrating that even though the legal system was not always just, rural Guatemalans considered it a legitimate arbiter of their grievances and an important tool for advancing their agendas. As both a mirror and an instrument of the state, the judicial system simultaneously illuminates the limits of state rule and the state’s ability to co-opt Guatemalans by hearing their voices in court. Against the backdrop of two of Latin America’s most oppressive regimes—the dictatorships of Manuel Estrada Cabrera (1898–1920) and General Jorge Ubico (1931–1944)—David Carey Jr. explores the ways in which indigenous people, women, and the poor used Guatemala’s legal system to manipulate the boundaries between legality and criminality. Using court records that are surprisingly rich in Maya women’s voices, he analyzes how bootleggers, cross-dressers, and other litigants crafted their narratives to defend their human rights. Revealing how nuances of power, gender, ethnicity, class, and morality were constructed and contested, this history of crime and criminality demonstrates how Maya men and women attempted to improve their socioeconomic positions and to press for their rights with strategies that ranged from the pursuit of illicit activities to the deployment of the legal system.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 26. Apr 2022)