Learning from poor single women’s autonomous households in Mexico in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries

ABSTRACT

What is the ability of poor single women today to maintain an economically autonomous household? In the context of gender power relations, the literature often employs the concept of de-familialisation, which is the degree to which a woman is able to maintain an autonomous household without having to depend on a male breadwinner. Scholars argue that current welfare reforms deliberately aim at re-establishing the family as the primary source of economic security and encourage a traditional model of gender relations where women have to be dependent on male breadwinners. By reinstating the nuclear family as the primary source of economic security and a comprehensive alternative to the welfare state, women’s ability for agency and resistance becomes narrower and heavily limited by their inferior gender and class positions. Today, studies clearly indicate the problematic condition of poor women. It seems that without a massive reform in the labour market as well as welfare state expansion, de-familialisation among poor women will become almost impossible. In the current article, we explore the possibility that low-income women, whose common survival strategies are very limited, nonetheless could engage in alternative ways of providing for themselves and their children. We ask to learn from the experience of poor Mexican women in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries about the ability of de-familialisation. Drawing on historical data, we argue that the formation of alternative household arrangements – sisterhoods – women-only households, enabled women to develop new family models and to maintain an extended household headed by women, without the need to depend on a male breadwinner. By learning from history, this article offers insights that may enhance poor women’s economic and social conditions today, and suggests that women’s joint power can resist traditional patterns of gender relations, even in times when conservative values are reemphasized.

KEYWORDS:

• Poverty
• single mothers
• sisterhood
• Mexico in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
• alternative family arrangements
• de-familialisation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Archives and libraries

Archivo Histórico Judicial, INAH, Puebla (AHJ) [The Judicial-Historic Archive, INAH, Puebla]

Archivo General de la Nación, Mexico (AGN) [The General National Archive, Mexico City]; Van Pelt Library, University of Pennsylvania, rare manuscript collections;

Archivo de la Curia (Metropolitana) del Arzobispado de México, Proyecto LRO [Archive of the Curia of the Archbishopric of Mexico City], Ordinary Mayor, civil series]; Justice]

Padrones de Sagrario [Cathedral Rolls]

Archivo Histórico de Hacienda [The Historical Archive of the Treasury]

Archivo Judicial (AJ), sección alcalde ordinario, serie civil [The Judicial Archive, Section of the Ordinary Mayor, civil series]

Archivo Histórico del Tribunal Superior de Justicia [Historical Archive of the Supreme Court of Justice]

Bienes de Difuntos [Properties of the Deceased]

Bienes Nacionales [National Properties]

Civil

Escribanos [Scribes]

Geneología y Heráldica [Genaology and Heraldry]

General de Parte [Ordinary Lawsuits]

Indiferente Virreinal [Various Papers of the Vice-Royalty]

Indios [Indians]

Inquisición [Inquisition]

Instituciones Coloniales, Matrimonios [National Institutions, Matrimonies]

Notaría [Public Notary]

Sagrario Metropolitano [The Metropolitan Cathedral’s Archive]

Tierras

Tribunal Supremo Judicial [The Supreme Court Records]

Van Pelt Library, University of Pennsylvania, rare manuscript collections

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. ‘Ana López, mujer soltera, vecina de México’, Archivo General de la Nación, Mexico (AGN), Inquisición Vol. 117, exp. 6, 1574 [‘Ana López, single, resident of Mexico City’, The General National Archive of Mexico, Mexico City].

2. AGN, Inquisicion, Vol. 304, exp. 7, fols. 1r-3v. 1626.

3. AGN, Archivo de la Curia (Metropolitana) del Arzobisapado de México, Proyecto LRO, rollo 1120 ubicación 19-C, Padrones de Sagrario, 1672–1678 [Archive of the Curia of the Archbishopric of Mexico City, Cathedral Rolls, 1672–1678]. The only full, house-to-house survey of the entire city was carried out in 1779, and a complete census of the whole of Mexico was carried out in 1790, in which appeared the total of 1,300,000 women above the age of fifteen. AGI. Archivo General de Indias, Varios vol. 38, ‘Padron exacto del Arzobispado de Mexico’ [1779]; Primer Censo de población de la Nueva España, 1790. Censo de Revillagigedo, un censo condenado, México, 1977, 16–18. A preliminary, house-to-house census of the central area of Mexico City, which is named now Colonia Centro, was carried out in 1753.

4. AGN, Matrimonios [Matrimonies], Vol. 101, exp. 2, fols. 229v-300r. Año 1617.

5. AGN, Matrimonios [Matrimonies], volumen 193, expediente 12, foja 14, año 1690.

6. AGN, Matrimonios [Matrimonies], cajas, vol. 255, exp. 16, 3 fols. Año: 1690. See, for comparison, Doña María Rencife’s testimony in Mangan (2005, p. 157).

7. ‘Proceso de divorcio e impotencia de Catalina Martin contra Juan Martin Herrero, su marido’[Process concerning divorce and impotence of Catalina Martin against Juan Martin Herrero, her husband], AGN, Indiferente Virreinal, Matrimonios, Caja 6625, exp. 1, fojas 43, 1564.

8. ‘Proceso y causa criminal contra Isabel de Montoya…’, Archivo General de la Nación, Mexico, Inquisición, Vol. 435, 1ª parte, fol. 81r [Criminal proceedings against Isabel de Montoya…].

9. ‘María de Abendaño, como prima de Inés de Perea vecina de San Jose del Parral, contra Pedro de Heredia, vecino de esta ciudad, sobre palabra de casamiento’, AGN, Instituciones Coloniales, Matrimonies, Tomo 19, vol. 78, 1663 [María de Abendaño as the cousin of Inés de Perea, resident of San Jose del Parral, against Pedro de Heredia, resident of this city, concerning his matrimonial pledge].

10. ‘Testamento de Juana María de la Cruz, india, viuda del capitán Felipe de Monzón Mojica, pardo libre’, AHJ-Puebla, Doc. No. 2463, 1688 [Testament of Juana María de la Cruz, an Indian, widow of Captain Felipe de Monzón Mojica, pardo libre=triracial descendant of Europeans, Indians and West Africans].

11. ‘Marta Rodríguez, negra libre, inventario de bienes, 1633,’ AHJ, docs. 1622, 1667.

12. Archivo Judicial de Puebla, INAH, exp. 2017, no. 13 (1648) [Marta Rodríguez, free black woman, inventory of property, 1633].

13. Escritura de depósito, ‘María de Chávez,’ AGN, Notaría 374 de Andrés Moreno, Bienes Nacionales, vol. 2469, fol. 204v [A contract of admission into a safe-house].

14. Proceso y causa criminal contra Isabel deMontoya. . .’, Archivo General de la Nación, Mexico, Inquisición,Vol. 435, 1ª parte, fol. 103r [Criminal proceedings against Isabel de Montoya…].

15. AGN, Inquisición [Inquisition], vol. 1602, exp. 1, 260 fs. Año: 1650–1656.