Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-pftt2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-24T23:43:02.428Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

De Obra y Palabra: Patterns of Insults in Mexico, 1750-1856*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Sonya Lipsett-Rivera
Sonya Lipsett-Rivera*
Affiliation:
Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Countless judicial complaints ranging from malos tratos (domestic mistreatment) to assault to insults contain the phrase de obra y palabra (by deed and word). Mexicans of the period 1750 to 1856 understood that the two aspects of injury—verbal and physical—were equally important. While violent acts harmed the body, words attacked an individual's honor and reputation. Therefore harm was conceived of as both physical and verbal, and the connection between the two was inherent in judicial formulations and the expression itself.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 54 , Issue 4 , April 1998 , pp. 511 - 539
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

Research for this article was made possible by generous grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and Carleton University. I would like to thank Fritz Schwaller, Kimberley Hanger, Gustavo Alfaro Ramírez, Ulíses Osorio Guzmán, Rosalva Loreto López, Francisco Cervantes Bello, Amalia Ayala Figueroa, Francisco Rivera Aguilar, Jill St. Germain, and Sergio Rivera Ayala.

References

1 Norton, Mary Beth, “Gender and Defamation in Seventeenth-Century Maryland,” William and Mary Quarterly (3rd series) 44:1 (1987), 3–39 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Garrioch, David, “Verbal Insults in Eighteenth-Century Paris,” in The Social History of Language Peter Burke and Roy Porter, eds., (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987)Google Scholar; Moogk, Peter N., “‘Thieving Buggers’ and ‘Stupid Sluts’: Insults and Popular Culture in New France,” William and Mary Quarterly (3rd series) 36.4 (1979), 524–547 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Martin, Cheryl, “Popular Speech and Social Order in Northern Mexico, 1650–1830,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 32:2 (1990), 305–324 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Gowing, Laura, “Gender and the Language of Insult in Early Modern London,” History Workshop, A Journal of Socialist and Feminist Histories 35 (Spring 1993), 10.Google Scholar

2 This article is part of a longer study on violence and women in late-colonial and early-national Mexico. My sample is taken from the Archivo General de la Nación, the Archivo Judicial de Puebla, and the Archivo Judicial del Tribunal Superior del Districto Federal. It includes 98 homicides (female victims), 126 ecclesiastical divorces, 103 rapes, 63 cases of domestic mistreatment, 215 assaults. I am examining the areas encompassed by the modern states of Mexico, Puebla, Hidalgo, and Morelos.

3 Taylor, William B., Magistrates of the Sacred; Priests and Parishioners in Eighteenth-Century Mexico (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996), pp. 230–231.Google Scholar

4 Martin, Cheryl E., Governance and Society in Colonial Mexico; Chihuahua in the Eighteenth Century (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996), p. 98 Google Scholar; Gutiérrez, Ramón, When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went A way; Marriage, Sexuality, and Power in New Mexico, 1500–1846 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991), p. 183,Google Scholar states that genizaros had to take off their hats in the presence of social superiors.

5 Lipsett-Rivera, Sonya, “Indigenous Communities and Water Rights in Colonial Puebla: Patterns of Resistance,” The Americas, 47:4 (1992), 463–483.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

6 Bajtin, Mijail, La cultura popular en la Edad Media y en el Renacimiento. El contexto de François Rabelais (Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1988), pp. 132, 150.Google Scholar

7 Cerda, Juan de la, Libro intitulado vida politica de todos los estados de mugeres: en el qual dan muy provechosos y Christianos documentos y avisos, para criarse y conservarse debidamente las mugeres en sus estados (Alcala de Henares: Casa de Juan Gracian, 1599), p. 323v, says “el hombre es cabeça” referring to marriage.Google Scholar

8 de Osuna, Fray Francisco, Norte de los estados en que se da regla de bivir a los mancebos: y a los casados; y a los viudos; y a todos los continentes; y se tratan muy por extenso los remedios del desastrado casamiento; enseñando que tal a de ser la vida del cristiano casado (Sevilla: no press, 1531), p. 90v,Google Scholar and also “les (wives) conviene ser subjectas a sus maridos al que les dio nuestro señor por cabeça: que es su marido.” and, p. 91, “Que esten subjectas (wives) a sus maridos: como los miembros a la cabeça.”

9 MacLachlan, Colin M., Spain’s Empire in the New World; The Role of Ideas in Institutional and Social Change (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1988), p. 9.Google Scholar

10 Cerda, , Libro intitulado, p. 442.Google Scholar

11 Vives, Juan Luis, Instrucción de la mujer cristiana (Buenos Aires: Espasa-Calpe, 1948, 4th edition), p. 94.Google Scholar

12 Gutiérrez, , When Jesus Came, p. 183.Google Scholar

13 Martin, , Governance, p. 99.Google ScholarPubMed

14 Stern, Steve, The Secret History of Gender; Women, Men, and Power in Late Colonial Mexico (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995), p. 211.Google Scholar

15 Gutiérrez, , When Jesus Came, p. 205.Google Scholar

16 Johnson, Lyman, “Dangerous Words, Provocative Gestures, and Violent Acts: The Disputed Hierarchies of Plebeian Life in Colonial Buenos Aires,” The Faces of Honor: Sex, Shame, and Violence in Colonial Latin American History, Johnson, Lyman and Lipsett-Rivera, Sonya, eds., (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1998).Google Scholar

17 Gutiérrez, , When Jesus Came, pp. 203–206, 208Google Scholar; Socolow, Susan, “Women and Crime: Buenos Aires, 1757–97,” Journal of Latin American Studies 12 (1980), 49, says that hair cutting branded women as morally loose.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

18 Archivo General de la Nación, Ramo Criminal, volume 41, expediente 25, folios 389–389v [hereafter AGN, Criminal, vol. 41, exp. 25, fol. 389–389v],

19 AGN, Criminal, vol. 278, exp. 7, fol. 239–262, 1796; AGN, Civil, vol. 2045 exp. 11, 1794.

20 Gibson, Charles, The Aztecs Under Spanish Rule; A History of the Indians of the Valley of Mexico, 1519–1810 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1964), p. 144,Google Scholar notes that Indians mostly wore balcarotas or long locks but mestizos might also have used this styling.

21 Austin, Alfredo López, The Human Body and Ideology; Concepts of the Ancient Nahuas, Vol. 1 (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1988), pp. 220–221.Google Scholar

22 Taylor, , Magistrates of the Sacred, p. 233 Google Scholar; Frye, David, Indians into Mexicans; History and Identity in a Mexican Town (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996), pp. 77–78,Google Scholar says that officials also used this method of punishment in their dealings with the populace in colonial San Luis Potosí.

23 See for example the actions of an alguacil in Mexico City who grabbed Juan Velásquez by the braid when Velásquez refused to give money he owed to the alcalde and was rude. Archivo Judicial del Tribunal Superior, Ramo Penales, volume 4, expediente 3, 1788 [hereafter AJTS, Penales, vol. 4, exp. 3, 1788].

24 Taylor, , Magistrates of the Sacred, pp. 234–235.Google Scholar

25 See for example, AGN, Criminal, vol. 222, exp. 15, fol. 283–313v, 1771.

26 Bajtin, , La cultura popular, pp. 132, 150. Google Scholar

27 AGN, Criminal vol. 38 exp. 16 fol. 305–336, 1809; AGN, Criminal vol. 118, exp. 13, fol. 473–481, 1807; AGN, Bienes Nacionales leg. 663, exp. 9, 1812; Yale Library-Puebla Collection, Box 5, series 2, folder 72, 1745 [hereafter YL-PC, Box 5, series 2, folder 72, 1754]; Archivo Judicial de Puebla, 1836 paquete 3 expediente 689 [hereafter AJP 1836 paquete 3 exp. 689; AJP, 1850, exp. 3325; AJP, 1856 paquete 4 (Proceso contra Joaquina Rojas); AGN, Criminal, vol. 570, exp. 7, fol. 75–81, 1795; AJP, 1846 no exp. number (Proceso contra María Justa Palacios); AJP, 1846 exp. 616; AJP, 1856 paquete 4, no exp. number (Proceso contra Juana María Bautista y Josefa Bárbara); AJP, 1850, exp. 3390; AJP, 1850 exp. 1287; AJTS, Penales, vol. 4, exp. 14,1785; AJTS, Penales, vol. 4, exp. 26, 1785; AJTS, Penales, vol. 6, exp. 71, 1791; AJTS, Penales, vol. 9, exp. 2, 1797;AJTS, Penales, vol. 11, exp. 16, 1750; AJTS, Penales, vol. 11, exp. 68, 1752; AJTS, Penales, vol. 10, exp. 57, 1772; AJTS, Penales, vol. 3, exp. 2, 1777; AJTS, Civil, vol. 141, no. exp. number, 1779; AJTS, Civil, vol. 113, no. exp. number, 1756; AJTS, Civil, vol. 110, no exp. number, 1754.

28 AJP, 1850 exp. 1287 8 fol.

29 Chasteen, John, “Violence for Show; Knife Duelling on a Nineteenth-Century Cattle Frontier,” The Problem of Order in Changing Societies: Essays on Crime and Policing in Argentina and Uruguay, 1750–1940, Johnson, Lyman, ed. (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1990), p. 52.Google Scholar

30 AGN, Criminal, vol. 459, exp. 5, fol. 237–283, 1817; AGN, Criminal vol. 131, exp. 27, 1727; AGN, Criminal vol. 131, exp. 27, fol. 425–480,1802; AGN, Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 717, exp. 100, 1853; AGN, Criminal vol. 2, exp. 19, fol. 326–365, 1776; AGN, Criminal, vol. 12, exp. 9, fol. 276–289V, 1744; AGN, Criminal, vol. 275, exp. 1, fol. 1–101,1766; YL-PC, Box 5, Series 2, folder 75,1623; AJP, 1850 no 3394 and 1343 11 fol. (Proceso contra Micaela Armenta); AGN, Civil, leg. 39, parte 5A, no exp. number no fol. number, 1854 (Proceso contra Refugia Ramírez); AGN, Civil, leg. 133 parte 2, exp. 7,1838; AJP, 1846 no exp. number, (Proceso contra Mariano Gómez); AJP, 1836 paquete 1, no exp. number (Proceso contra María Pascuala Chávez); AJP, 1836, paquete 1, no exp. number, (Proceso contra María Lugarda Ignacio); AJP, 1850, exp. 3319; AJP, 1846, exp. 616; AJP, 1846, exp. 2249; AJP, 1850, exp. 915; AJP, 1856, paquete 2, no exp. number (Proceso contra Gertrudis); AJP, 1856, paquete 1, no exp. number (Proceso contra María de Jesús Arroyo); AJP, 1856, paquete 6 no exp. number (Proceso contra María de la Luz Romero); AJP 1856, paquete 6, no exp. number (Proceso contra Petra Briseño); AJP, 1856, paquete 4, no exp. number (Proceso contra Catarina Mendoza); AJP, 1856 paquete 4, no exp. number (Proceso contra Mariano Mendiola); AJP, 1856 paquete 2, no exp. number (Proceso contra José Trinidad Sánchez); AJP, 1850 exp. 3180; AJP, 1856, paquete 6, exp. 38; AJP, 1856, paquete 5, no exp. number (Proceso contra Juana Martínez); AJP, 1850 exp. 3329; AJTS, Penales, vol. 3, exp. 62, 1776.

31 AGN, Civil, leg. 39, parte 5A, no exp. number, (Proceso contra Refugia Ramírez), 1854.

32 AJP, 1846 no exp. number Huauchinango, (Proceso contra Marino Gómez).

33 In my sample, I found only six cases of cut faces with no sexual overtones whereas I encountered 28 cases that had definite associations with either jealousy or rejection. I found two more cases in which the scenario of rejection existed but it seems that the attacker was only able to cut the woman’s arm.

34 Gorn, Elliott J. “‘Gouge and Bite, Pull Hair and Scratch’: The Social Significance of Fighting in the Southern Backcountry,” American Historical Review 1:90 (1985), passim.Google Scholar

35 AGN, Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 470, exp. 17, 1836.

36 AGN, Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 292, exp. 26, 1790.

37 AJTS, Penales, vol. 4, exp. 14, 1785. Interestingly, in her defense, Eusebia accused Don Pedro of grabbing her husband’s calzones (underpants).

38 AJTS, Penales, vol. 12, exp. 50,1804. Obviously, her husband’s actions were an imitation of public punishment by officials as well.

39 Pitt-Rivers, Julian “Honour and Social Status,” Honour and Shame; The Values of Mediterranean Society, Peristiany, J. George ed. (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1965), p. 25 Google Scholar; Bajtin, , La cultura popular, pp. 132 Google Scholar,150. Greenberg, Kenneth S. “The Nose, the Lie, and the Duel in the Antebellum South,” American Historical Review 95:1 (1990), 57–74 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, states that in the southern United States the act of touching the nose of another man meant an offense to his honor.

40 AJP, 1846 no exp. num., (Proceso contra María Luisa Torres).

41 AJP, 1834, paquete 1, Puebla, no exp. number, (Proceso contra María de la Luz Ruiz). For another example, see AJP, 1856, paquete 5, no exp. number, (Proceso contra Rafaela Pérez).

42 AJP, 1856 paquete 3 (Proceso contra Marcelino Carrión). For other examples, see AGN, Civil, leg. 39, parte 5A, no exp. number, 1854 (Proceso contra Refugia Ramírez); AJP, 1850, exp. 3390; AJTS, Penales, vol. 7, exp. 77, 1792.

43 AJP, 1856 paquete 6 exp. 2, (Proceso contra Guadalupe Salazar). See also AJTS, Penales, vol. 7, exp. 59, 1792.

44 de Trujillo, Fray Thomas Libro Llamado Reprobación de Trajes, Con un Tratado de Lymosnas (Navarra: no press, 1563), p. 84 Google Scholar, says that “El vestido deshonesto es mensajero del coraçon adulterino y la consciència mala.” de Astete, Padre Gaspar Tratado del buen govierno de la familia y estado de las viudas y doncellas (Burgos: Juan Baptista Varedio, 1603) p. 61 Google Scholar, “sea el vestido exterior del cuerpo tal que muestre qual ha de ser el atavio del animo interior.” For a general discussion of the symbolic aspect of clothes see Rubinstein, Ruth P. Dress Codes: Meanings and Messages in American Culture (Boulder: Westview Press, 1995).Google Scholar

45 Martin, , Governance, p. 46 Google ScholarPubMed, p. 142; Galindo, Pedro Excelencias de la castidad y virginidad. Divídese en dos partes (Madrid: Matheo de Espinosa y Arteaga, 1681), p. 45 Google Scholar, the wife of a poor official should not be like that of a rich gentleman; Martín de Córdoba, Jardín de las nobles donsellas (1542) Part II chapter 9 “según su estado vaya vestido” do not be hypocrite in dressing, for example, if a princess dressed like a the wife of a bourgeois. Trujillo, Libro Llamado, p. bb–iij, criticizes people who dress above their class, and recommends against this practice. de Talavera, Hernando Reforma de trages ilustrada por el maestro Bartolomé Ximenez, regente del estudio de letras umanas a Villanueba de los Infantes (Baeça: Juan de la Cuesta, 1638), p. 7 Google Scholar, approves of different clothes according to social station. According to Ferrer, Vicente Suma Moral para examen de curas y confesores en que a la luz del sol de las escuelas Santo Thomás, se desvanecen los perniciosos extremos de laxedad y rigor… (Valencia: Oficina de Joseph Thomas Lucas, 1736), p. 261 Google Scholar, garb could also symbolize religious adherence.

46 Thomas Gage’s Travels in the New World, edited by Thompson, J.Eric (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1958, original edition, 1648), pp. 68–69.Google Scholar

47 Martin, , Governance, p. 97 Google ScholarPubMed, p. 111; Taylor, , Magistrates of the Sacred, p. 232 Google Scholar, equates the priest’s bastón with the vara.

48 Baroja, Julio Caro “Honour and Shame: A Historical Account of General Conflicts,” Honour and Shame, p. 91 Google Scholar, states: “A man may be insulted by deed, by a kick, or a blow of the hand, stick or stone, by pursuit with intent to wound, by tearing his clothes or by deliberate damage to his house or property.”

49 AJP 1856 paquete 1, Puebla, causa en contra de Antonio Flores.

50 AJP 1856 paquete 6 exp. 206 (Proceso contra Guadalupe Salazar).

51 AJP 1836 paquete 3 exp. 689.

52 For other examples, see AGN, Criminal, vol. 141, exp. 8, fol. 196-209, 1776; AGN, Civil, vol. 119, exp. 4, 1838; AJP 1856, paquete 1, no exp. number (Proceso contra Pascual Reyes); AJP, 1856, paquete 4, no exp. number (Proceso contra Juana María Bautista y Josefa Bárbara); AJP 1767 exp. 4020; AJTS, Penales, vol. 4, exp. 14,1785; AJTS, Penales, vol. 6, exp. 71, 1791; AJTS, Penales, vol. 11, exp. 16, 1750.

53 Taylor, , Magistrates of the Sacred, p. 134 Google Scholar, notes that topiles took clothes and other objects of those who were slow or unwilling to pay their dues.

54 AGN, Criminal, vol. 254, exp. 8, fol. 228–242, 1770.

55 AGN, Criminal, vol. 254, exp. 8, fol. 228–242, 1770. Another plaintiff also emphasized the loudness of public declarations, see AJTS, Penales, vol. 3, exp. 62, 1776.

56 Boyer, Richard “Honor Among Plebeians: mala sangre and Social Reputation,” in The Faces of Honor.Google Scholar

57 Gorn, , “‘Gouge and Bite,’” p. 19 Google Scholar, states that in eighteenth-century Virginia, to call a man “buckskin” was to imply that he was so poor that he had to wear leather clothing. The term “Scotsman” associated the individual with the inferior social standing of the Scots-Irish settlers.

58 Garrioch, “Verbal Insults,” passim.

59 Frye, , Indians into Mexicans, p. 91 Google Scholar; Martin, , Governance, p. 135 Google ScholarPubMed, also reports an incident between a Spanish shopkeeper and a mulato in which the former used the second person to emphasize the social distance between the two.

60 AGN, Criminal, vol. 27, exp. 14,fol. 495–499,1802.1 have discussed this case in greater detail in “A Slap in the Face of Honor; Gender, Violence and Social Transgressions in Colonial Mexico,” The Faces of Honor. Martin, Governance, p. 169, recounts an incident in which a complainant deliberately described a woman known as Spanish as a mulatta.

61 AGN, Criminal vol. 80 exp. 10 fol. 290–358,1808; also AGN, Criminal vol. 131, exp. 27, fol. 425–480, 1802.

62 Gonzalbo, Pablo Escalante “Calpulli: Etica y Parentesco,” Historia de la Familia, Aizpuru, Pilar Gonzalbo ed. (Mexico City: Instituto Mora and Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, 1993), p. 96–99 Google Scholar. Taylor, William B. Drinking, Homicide and Rebellion in Colonial Mexican Villages (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1979), p. 82 Google Scholar, characterizes the statement “What are you doing in my neighborhood?” as a typically Indian insult.

63 Burkhart, Louise The Slippery Earth; Nahua-Christian Moral Dialogues in Sixteenth-Century Mexico (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1989), p. 63 Google Scholar; Taggart, James Nahuat Myth and Social Structure (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1983), p. 55.Google Scholar

64 AGN, Criminal, vol. 206, exp. 18, fol. 219–227,1771; AGN, Civil, leg. 199 parte 2 exp. 4,1846.

65 Martin, , Governance, p. 157 Google ScholarPubMed, states that insults associated with females usually impugned their sexuality while those aimed at men challenged their control over their women. She also says that during the eighteenth century insults directed at males were increasingly linked to economic matters.

66 AGN, Civil, Leg. 199, parte, 2, exp. 4, 1846.

67 AGN, Criminal, vol. 705, exp. 3, fol. 29–32, 1763.

68 AGN, Criminal, vol. 27, exp. 14, fol. 495–499, 1802.

69 AGN, Criminal, vol. 222, exp. 15, fol. 283–313v, 1771.

70 Taylor, , Drinking, pp. 117–118.Google ScholarPubMed

71 AGN, Criminal, vol. 148, exp. 5 fol. 150–155,1809; AGN, Criminal vol. 124 exp. 12 fol. 136, 1807; AGN, Criminal, vol. 221, exp. 1, fol. 1–48, 1804.

72 See Gowing, “Gender,” for a discussion of the reasons for women to insult from their doorsteps.

73 AGN, Criminal, vol. 27, exp. 8 fol. 230–231v, 1773.

74 Brandes, Stanley Metaphors of Masculinity, Sex and Status in Andalusian Folklore (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1980), p. 185 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, the church can be considered a “symbolic home” and a “domestic domain.”

75 AGN, Criminal vol. 54 exp. 11 fol. 161–197; AGN, Criminal vol. 41, exp. 25, fol. 389–389v; AGN, Criminal, vol. 712, exp. 3, fol. 196v–229v; AJP, 1836, no exp. number (Proceso contra María Juana Carrera).

76 AGN, Criminal vol. 133 exp. 3 fol. 207 296v 1790.

77 AGN, Criminal, vol. 27, exp. 14, 1802.

78 AGN, Criminal, vol. 41, exp. 25, fol. 389–389v.

79 AGN, Criminal, vol. 206 exp. 18 fol. 219–227, 1771.

80 Martin, , Governance, p. 162 Google ScholarPubMed; Farge, Arlette Fragile Lives: Violence, Power and Solidarity in Eighteenth-Century Paris, Shelton, Carol trans. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993)Google Scholar, makes the same argument for the women of Paris.

81 AGN, Criminal, vol. 275, exp. 1, fol. 1–101, 1766.

82 AGN, Criminal vol. 65, exp. 8, fol. 460–483, 1820.

83 AGN, Criminal vol. 119, exp. 30, fol. 477–488v, 1806.

84 AGN, Criminal vol. 131, exp. 27, fol. 425–480, 1802.

85 AGN, Civil, Leg. 158, parte 5, exp. 3, 1837. Micaela Armenia tried to kill Carlos Bertier because he gossiped about her. See AJP 1850 no 3394 and 1343 11 fol. (Causa contra Micaela Armenia).

86 AJP, 1836, paquete 2, exp. 663.

87 AJP, 1789, #5281.

88 AGN, Criminal, vol. 119, exp. 29, fol. 441–474, 1753.

89 AGN, Criminal, vol. 139, exp. 9, fol. 139v–165v, 1799.

90 AGN, Criminal, vol. 221, exp. 1, fol. 1–48, 1804.

91 Taylor, , Drinking, pp. 81–82.Google ScholarPubMed

92 AGN, Criminal, vol. 118, exp. 5, fol. 158–183,1808. For other such cases, see AGN, Criminal, vol. 253, exp. 6, fol. 161–226, 1816; AGN, Criminal, vol. 262, exp. 11, fol. 160–201, 1803; AGN, Criminal, vol. 131, exp. 38, fol. 425–480, 1802; AGN, Criminal, vol. 46, exp. 3, fol. 89–125, 1806; AGN, Criminal, vol. 47, exp. 8, fol. 233–299, 1809; AJP, 1846 no exp. number, (Proceso contra Pedro Vásquez).

93 I found 27 examples. Taylor, , Drinking, p. 82 Google ScholarPubMed, lists puta, cornudo, alcahuete and cabrón as fighting words.

94 AJP, 1850, exp. 915.

95 Taylor, , Magistrates of the Sacred, p. 329.Google Scholar

96 Stern, , The Secret, p. 143.Google ScholarPubMed

97 My assertion is not particularly scientific but based upon conversations with about fifteen Mexicans.

98 I found only one reference to the word lépero in 1846. None of the nineteenth-century material I found in the Archivo Judicial de Puebla contains the word lépero.

99 Escalante, , “Calpulli,” p. 97 Google Scholar.

100 Martin, , Governance, p. 153.Google ScholarPubMed

101 AGN, Criminal, vol. 62, exp. 17, fol. 379–436,1804; AGN, Civil, vol. 113, no. exp. num. 1805; AJP 1856 paquete 3 Atlixco (Proceso contra Marcelino Carrión); AGN, Criminal, vol. 583, exp. 14, fol. 300–339,1803; AGN, Criminal, vol. 459, exp. 5, fol. 237–283,1817; AGN, Bienes Nacionales, leg. 905, exp. 24, 1777; AJP, 1836, paquete 2, exp. 663; AJP, 1856 paquete 3, no exp. number (Proceso contra Genovevo Robledo).

102 Martin, , “Popular Speech,” p. 317 Google Scholar; Taylor, , Drinking, p. 82,Google ScholarPubMed characterizes the sexual insults cabrón, joto, cornudo, pendejo, hijo de puta and carajo as declarations of manliness which did not necessarily imply that the recipient was actually a cuckold, a homosexual or the other direct definitions.