Scardaville - Crime and the urban poor: Mexico City in the late colonial period

GRIME AND THE URBAN POOR: MEXICO CITY IN THE LATE COLONIAL PERIOD

BY

MIGIiAEL CHARLES SGARDAVILLE

A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE COUNCIL

OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE

DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 1977

COPYRIGHT BY

MICHAEL CHARLES SCARDAVILLE

Dedicated to the memory of my father

PREFACE

The purpose of the dissertation is to examine lower class life in Mexico City in the late colonial period. Although this period ranges from the onset of the administration of Viceroy Croix in I766 to the end of the tavern reform movement in 1811, the bulk of the study concentrates on the three decades folloKing the reform of the municipal criminal judicial system in I783.

The comparative inaccessibility and lack of data on urban non-elites make study of such groups difficult. The poor did not leave behind accounts of their lives, and the documentation that has survived has generally been written by viceregal and municipal bureaucrats hostile to the lifestyle of the lower classes. In addition to notary records, the poor left a legacy of their behavior and daily lives in the city police and court records located today in the Archive Judicial del Tribunal and Archive General del Juzgado. From aggregate arrest statistics collected from police Inventories (Libros de Reos) and from testimonies taken from informal and formal criminal cases, I will analyze several types of prevalent crimes, such as common-law marriage, desertion, and property and drink offenses, which were structured into lower class society. I will conclude by discussing how the colonial authorities treated the criminal offenders in the lower courts of Mexico City.

This study is written on the assumption that criminal statistics, although incomplete in their coverage of all crime, reflect values, attitudes, and daily problems among the poor. I will examine crime not as a series of independent criminal acts, but as a dimension of lower class behavior. Preoccupation with criminal statistics is not an end in itself, but represents only one approach to study the urban poor. Statistical calculations, used judiciously, can offer more insight into lower class society in late colonial Mexico City.

Other materials supplement the criminal records. The Archive General de la Nacion contains abundant documentation on tavern reforms, population, viceregal policies toward crime, creation of police forces, and problems of law enforcement. The Archive del Antiguo Ayuntamiento offers related information, particularly on legal taverns and street lighting. The Libros de Reos consist of over 7,000 listings of persons of both sexes arrested between 1795 and 1807, and with such a large sample of the lower class population, I occasionally use the arrest recorxis as census-type data. I^tterns of migration from the provinces, age at marriage figures, and occupational distributions by age, race, and marital status were all constructed from the police and coiurt inventories.

Whenever possible, I rounded off percentages in the statistical calculations, but whenever slight differences were necessary for analysis, such as in the types of court sentences or the incidence of arrests in 1798, I listed the figures to one decimal point. Unless noted, all statistical data not footnoted and all tables listed at the end of each chapter are based on analysis of the nine extant Libros de Reos. Tables presenting data from 1798 were constructed solely from the three police and court inventories pertaining to that year.

Many people have contributed to the present study. My chalnnan, Dr. Lyle N. McAlister, has not only sparked my interest in colonial Mexican history, but has also provided the necessary guidance and has given the necessary freedom to undertake such a project. I am also indebted to Dr. Claude G. Sturgill for his careful reading of the manuscript and tables, his supervision of the quantitative methodology, and for other favors too numerous to mention. Through the assistance of Mrs. Lilian McDowell, the Department of History has been more than generous with computer funds, and Jean Holtzer of CIRCA and Rod Mundy and Jim Lewis of the Political Science Statistical Lab have provided necessary instruction in the Statistical lockage for the Social Sciences and have helped untangle many difficulties with the computer runs. The staffs at the AJT and AGJ also patiently answered the many questions I had during my eight months of work on the Libros de Reos and criminal cases.

Without my wife, Barbara, however, this dissertation would never have been completed. She gave me support and encouragement throughout these long years of graduate school, particularly after long days in the archives and on the buses of Mexico City. Her typing and editing have also made my work that much easier. And finally, our daughter, Melissa, has also contributed to the dissertation by giving us much joy in life after long bouts at the writing and typing Ubles.

GOOTEOTS

PflEFAGE iv

ABSTRACT vlii

CHAPTER

ONE GRIME AND THE URBAN POOR: AN OVERVIEW 1

Notes ,, 26

Tables 34

TWO MIGRATION AITO TOVERTY 48

Notes , , -^3

Tables "pg

THREE PROPERTY GRIMES 9O

Notes 123

Tables I3O

FOUR FAMILY LIFE 140

Notes 183

Tables I9I

FIVE DRINK AND DRIVING PLAGES 208

Notes 252

Tables . 265

SIX THE COURTS, JUSTICE, AND THE URBAN POOR 272

Notes 326

Tables 327

CONCLUSION 331

APPENDIX 3^

BIBLIOGRAPHY 335

BIOGRAiraCAL SKETCH 366

ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE COUNCIL

OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT

OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE

OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

CRIME AND THE URBAN POOR: MEXICO CITY IN THE UTE COLONIAL PERIOD

BY

MICHAEL CHARLES SCARDAVILLE AUGUST 1977

Chairman: Lyle N. McAlister, Ph.D. Major Department: History

The dissertation examines lower class life in Mexico City in the late colonial period (1766-I8II) through computer-assisted analysis of 7,067 arrests and summary judicial hearings. Census data and viceregal and municipal decrees supplement the criminal records. The urban poor adopted patterns of conduct which the laws and social elite deemed criminal. Within the lower class subculture, however, certain criminal acts such as drunkenness, common-law marriage, and petty theft represented accepted patterns of behavior, and consequently, such acts yield insight into several dimensions of lower class life.

The poor, comprising 85 per cent of Mexico City's population, did not benefit from the upswing in the economy in the late colonial period. Caused by a constant influx of migrants from the provinces, a labor surplus kept wages below subsistence levels. Although wages increased by as much as 25 per cent, the price of com more than doubled.

The problem of survival led many of the poor to adopt criminal forms of behavior. Contrary to contemporary opinion, the criminals, popularly called Igperos , were neither marginal types nor dregs of the lower classes. They were drawn from all racial and occupational groups, with a large percentage representing the socially superior Spaniards and the economically superior artisans. The llperos were a cross section of, not a distinct class within the urban poor.

Alcoholic beverages assumed a central role in the lives of the poor. Drink-related crimes accounted for almost one-half of the arrests in Mexico City. Over 1,600 legal and illegal taverns populated the city. Known to the police as breeding grounds for criminal activities, the drinking places represented to the poor reassuring institutions in an economically deprived environment. Reform of the pulquerlas in 1792-93 and the vinaterlas in 1810-11 failed because of hostility from the poor as well as from influential hacendados who profited from the immoderate consumption of intoxicants.