| The Two Hundred or so bigamists of this book have been fascinating companions over the years. Collectively, I view them as representative of colonial Mexico's plebeian world; individually, I see them as fashioning their worlds in distinctive ways. Trying to understand them has been a demanding task and, on taking leave of them now, I am all too aware that much about them can never be recovered. Readers interested in their stories, dispersed in the chapters, may use the index to keep the following in view more directly: Antonio de Azevedo, Gernimo Benavides, Marcos de la Cruz, Mateo de la Cruz, Juan Gmez Franco, Agustn Hoz Espinosa, Juan Lorenzo del Castillo, Brbara Martina, Pedro Mateo, Mariana Monroy, Joseph Moz de Sanabria, Juan Antonio Ramrez, Felipe Rodriguez, Francisco Rodriguez, and Manuel Romano. |
| But I have tried. And where I have faltered, it will not be for lack of encouragement and support from friends and colleagues. I hope that they will understand that the brief listing that follows, probably with too many omissions, cannot show how deeply I appreciate their comments, advice, and suggestions. Without implying that any of them is responsible for the book's errors and shortcomings, I warmly thank Asuncin Lavrin, Solange Alberro, Cathy Duke, Sergio Ortega Noriega, Leda Torres, Murdo MacLeod, Dolores Enciso, Catherine LeGrand, Geof Spurling, Jean-Pierre Dedieu, William French, James Lockhart, Michelle McFarlane, Doris Ladd, Douglas Cole, Brad Benedict, Jorge Garca, David Barnhill, Steve Stern, Mara Urquidi, the late Richard Sullivan, Hugh M. Hamill, Jr., Steve Peterson, Ben Metcalfe, Paul DeGrace and former students, now colleagues, Jim Boothroyd, Jennifer Asp and Jacqueline Holler. Throughout I relied on Peter Gerhard's published work to track the movements of bigamists and to regularize the spellings of place names. |
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