The Documents

Suing Parents and Children

By analyzing documents involving domestic disputes, we can get a sense of some of the conflicts that in the nineteenth century divided parents from their children. A good example of these disputes appears in the judicial cases involving disensos filed in the Province of Buenos Aires. Disensos consisted of lawsuits filed by sons and daughters against their parents, seeking the right to marry freely partners of their own choosing. Parents frequently countersued, claiming their parental rights and obligations to guide the behaviors of their children, even after attaining the age of majority. These rights involved parental selection of marriage partners, at one extreme, and obstacle preventing the exercise of children's free will, at the other, when they believed that the well-being and social standing of family – conceived as a singular and comprehensive entity – was at risk. The following documents contain disensos found in the Archivo Histórico de la Provincia de Buenos Aires.

7-5-14-112	7-5-14-4	7-5-14-84	7-5-16-15
7-5-14-12	7-5-14-48	7-5-15-2	7-5-16-3
7-5-14-16	7-5-14-52	7-5-15-30	7-5-16-54
7-5-14-20	7-5-14-72	7-5-15-6	7-5-17-22
7-5-14-24	7-5-14-80	7-5-16-11	7-5-17-34

Spousal Homicides

Domestic relations could take violent turns. No greater violence could visit a home than the murder of a family member. The cases of spousal homicide, known in Spanish as uxoricidios, in the list below come from the late 18th and early 19th centuries in Mexico. Often, these violent cases took place among the poorer segments of Mexican society, in both rural and urban settings. The cases available on line show a wide range of emotions, in addition to the legal maneuverings by judges and advocates in a society keenly aware of violence in all its forms and in a state bent on limiting its worst effects. These criminal cases come from the Archivo General de la Nación in Mexico City.

Criminal-119-4

Criminal-712-1-2-30v

Criminal-118-5

Criminal-624-2-38-43