ABSTRACT
In 1775, the promotor fiscal, or Church’s attorney – a key gure in the judiciary of the Spanish viceregal capital of Mexico City – argued that women’s formal cases against husbands over abuse or other marital matters were not really lawsuits. He conceded that, yes, the suits procedurally aligned with codied law that permitted women to le criminal charges for men’s excessive physical punishment. And, certainly, women often submitted the proper written documentation to the right authorities. Still, these legal actions were dierent from lawsuits since women often went to judges not as magistrates but rather as ‘paternal resources’, and could – and often did – drop their suits.
