ABSTRACT
When Angela Otzoy shot Emilia Mux in the buttocks in 1919, the state only became aware of it because Mux decided to press charges against her daughter-in-law. The subsequent court record provides a rare glimpse into Kaqchikel women's lives in the early twentieth century. The state had limited success regulating women's activities—authorities arrested a number of Kaqchikel females for establishing monopolies in highland markets; health officials forced some midwives to attend workshops and attain licenses; truant officers compelled a few girls to go to school—but seldom did it learn much about women's lives behind closed doors. As enigmatic as the Otzoy-Mux case is, it provides an example (albeit an unusual one) of what women did and how they interacted beyond the purview of men and the state. And even though Kaqchikel women's oral histories are a rich source for understanding women's lives between extraordinary moments that caught the state's attention, the Otzoy–Mux case elucidates an area that oral histories obscure: internecine struggles among Kaqchikel women. Thus, combining archival evidence with oral histories provides a nuanced history not only by contrasting competing historical narratives, but also in pointing to elisions and omissions in reconstructions of the past. Since subaltern life mattered both when it affected and was hidden from public politics, history needs to be understood from archival material and the memories of living people.
