History and the Contours of Meaning: The Abjection of Luisa Nevárez, First Woman Condemned to the Gallows in Puerto Rico, 1905.
The article analyzes the case of Luisa Nevárez, the first woman condemned to the gallows in Puerto Rico at the beginning of the twentieth century. Convicted for the killing of her almost year-old daughter, she never admitted the crime nor showed any remorse. Yet, Luisa did not make an easy transitio...
| Publicado en: | Hispanic American Historical Review Vol. 89; no. 4; pp. 643 - 675 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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Duke University Press
Nov2009
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=44526222&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 44526222 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00182168 HAH jtl: Hispanic American Historical Review issn: 00182168 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Nov2009 vid: 89 iid: 4 pid: 154 pub: Duke University Press artinfo: ui: 44526222 10.1215/00182168-2009-048 ppf: 643 ppct: 32 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 659KB tig: atl: History and the Contours of Meaning: The Abjection of Luisa Nevárez, First Woman Condemned to the Gallows in Puerto Rico, 1905. aug: au: Baerga-Santini, María del Carmen affil: Professor of History, University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras campus su: Nevárez Ortiz, Luisa Women criminals Women death row inmates Capital punishment sentencing Infanticide Puerto Rican social conditions Puerto Rican politics & government Puerto Rican history, 1898-1952 History Puerto Rico sug: subj: Puerto Rico Nevárez Ortiz, Luisa Women criminals Women death row inmates Capital punishment sentencing Infanticide Puerto Rican social conditions Puerto Rican politics & government Puerto Rican history, 1898-1952 History ab: The article analyzes the case of Luisa Nevárez, the first woman condemned to the gallows in Puerto Rico at the beginning of the twentieth century. Convicted for the killing of her almost year-old daughter, she never admitted the crime nor showed any remorse. Yet, Luisa did not make an easy transition into the sphere of the criminal. The nascent identity that was being forged in early twentieth-century Puerto Rico configured the delinquent as a masculine subject who was acknowledged as possessing intellectual malice and the capacity for social action. Luisa's condition as a woman, mother, and mulatta, her ignorance, and other factors deprived her of any possibility of entering the space of the criminal subject. Instead, the figure of Luisa oscillated between monster and madwoman in the discourses of the time. Around the mid-twentieth century her discursive figure emerges again, this time in the authorized voices of those concerned with criminal activities on the island. In this context, we find her embodying the prototype of the criminal woman: degenerate, ugly, black, and sexually insatiable. It is Luisa's abject condition that places her on the threshold of history and on the borders of the intelligible. However, the impossibility of explaining her actions in a rational way constitutes a formidable challenge for the historian. In this respect, the article is also a reflection on the limits and possibilities of the representative faculties of the historical narrative. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Hispanic American Historical Review is the property of Duke University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Hispanic American Historical Review holder: Duke University Press dt: @attributes: year: 2009 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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