This fascinating examination of bigamy in colonial Mexico reveals for the first time the lives, routines, and networks of ordinary people. The author, drawing from his close reading of Inquisition files, situates these people in the web of daily life: in families as they grow up and in communities as they learn the ways of society. With vivid glimpses of courtship, loss of virginity, marriage, adultery, abusive treatment, and failed marriage, he also follows them in their private lives. In the campaign to root out bigamy, the Inquisition relied on people to denounce one another. How they went about this reveals that gossip and curiosity sustained a surer and swifter system of communications than we might have imagined. The many pieces of stories recounted here convey emotions and reactions rarely preserved from past centuries. From a young child enduring abuse and rape by relatives to the wily suitor who tricks his future father-in-law with a tale of lost loot stored in a robber's cave, throughout this volume we hear the voices of hitherto invisible people.

About the Author
Richard Boyer is a professor of history at Simon Fraser University and the author of a book on seventeenth-century Mexico City as well as a number of articles on colonial Mexico.


Book Information
ISBN 9780826323842
Author Richard Boyer
Format Hardback
Page Count 203
Imprint University of New Mexico Press
Publisher University of New Mexico Press