“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...
“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ... “MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...
Chaves’ homens bons – with longstanding connections to the local forum, merchants and landowners could publicly manifest and reinforce their personal reputation and connections. In this way, they enhanced their local status and with it the possibilities for further commerce. As a result, local courtrooms became critical arenas of struggle over the disparate elements of alternative borderlands legalities underpinning both factional politics and cross-border trade. The importance of publicly manifesting the webs of connections sustaining personal reputations and trading networks to obtain justice in local fora often led to substantial efforts to track down and obtain testimony from dozens of diverse witnesses. For example, the Brazilian attorney, Mathias Teixeira de Almeida, and Joaquim dos Santos Prado Lima, his political rival in Alegrete, went to great lengths to secure a series of prominent witnesses to support their respective property claims. As we will see in more detail in chapters four and five, both Teixeira and Prado Lima produced dozens of local witnesses to support their respective property rights, with the local court specifically highlighting the “age, wealth and character” of Prado Lima’s witnesses in ruling in his favor. 87 In assigning weight to this testimonial evidence, courts also frequently cited the amount of time a given witness had resided in a particular forum. Courts rested decisions on the testimony of “antiguos vecinos” on a number of occasions. 88 Conversely, recent arrivals 87 Doña Francisca Oliveira Lisboa c. Joaquim dos Santos Prado Lima, APRGS. Alegrete. Cartíorio Civil e Crime. Ações Ordinários, Maço 36, No. 851 (1855), 24bis. 88 See, e.g., Expediente promovido por Don Joaquin Antonio Nuñez, como apoderado de Doña Franctia Lascano, apelando de la sentencia del Juzgado de Paz de esta sección, que obtuvo en su fabor Don Antonio Martines, sobre el mejor derecho de possesión á un terreno, AGN-SJ. Salto. Letrados Civiles, No. 8 (1850), 11bis. The court declared that a decision of the juez de paz concerning the ownership of a particular tract of land was erroneous because it contradicted the “antiguos vecinos of known probity.” Other examples from Salto include Don Francisco Caballero c. Don Joaquin Noqueira sobre propiedad de una charca, AGN. Salto. Letrados Civiles, No. 15 (1870), 10 (land ownership established through the testimony of “antiguos vecinos”); Don Francisco 108
were considered suspect, particularly if they lacked connections to local power networks. There was a certain irony in all this given that merchants, landowners and traders in the borderlands were in nearly constant motion. What became important in securing one’s status as a vecino often lay in its recognition from local elites and officials. As borderlands traders like Blanes, Vidiella and Chaves placed their faith in prominent local vecinos to police their trading relationships, these groups in turn jealously guarded their power to delineate the boundaries between insiders and outsiders in the forum. In this way, the operation of borderlands legalities further increased centrifugal tensions even as commercial relationships brought the region closer together. Consider the statements by local officials in the eastern Uruguayan city of Minas. They sought to ban Manuel Cabral from even appearing in court as a witness and legal representative. To do so, the alcalde ordinario, Bartolomé Arambillete, drafted a letter to judicial representatives in Montevideo. In it, he commented: “Señor Cabral came from Montevideo some months ago without any relation or connection to this Pueblo.” 89 Arambillete went on to note that Cabral was “not a vecino nor a citizen, but a foreigner without any known trade or way to make a living when by his age he should rightfully have one.” 90 It is interesting that the alcalde explicitly drew a distinction between Cabral’s “foreignness” and his status as a vecino. This was critical in the borderlands city given its large and powerful Brazilian population. Despite their nationality, these residents certainly possessed the requisite social standing to appear in court. The alcalde also linked credibility with economic activity in the town. In short, Caballero c. Don Joaquin Noqueira sobre propiedad de una charca, AGN. Salto. Letrados Civiles, No. 15 (1870) (land rights established based on the testimony of six “antiguos vecinos” around the Uruguayan city of Belen). 89 Alcalde Ordinario de Minas, Bartolomé Arambillete al Juez L. de lo Civil en Montevideo, AGN- SJ. Montevideo. Civil: 1º Turno, C-7 (1835), 1. 90 Ibid., 1-1bis. 109
- Page 67 and 68: universal laws that would further r
- Page 69 and 70: Pedro abdicated the throne in 1831,
- Page 71 and 72: CHAPTER 2 THE (RE)EMERGENCE OF BORD
- Page 73 and 74: operate throughout the borderlands
- Page 75 and 76: and staple exports instead of the o
- Page 77 and 78: Ríos in particular witnessed a dra
- Page 79 and 80: goods as far north as the cities of
- Page 81 and 82: simmering struggles. By 1840, local
- Page 83 and 84: merchants, traders and landowners.
- Page 85 and 86: earning the faction’s colorado ti
- Page 87 and 88: Guarch’s deal with Carvalho revea
- Page 89 and 90: web of reciprocal relationships tha
- Page 91 and 92: the border in Brazil. In this way,
- Page 93 and 94: In short, over the course of a deca
- Page 95 and 96: that he had employed to first arran
- Page 97 and 98: opposite direction from Porto Alegr
- Page 99 and 100: Pinto sought to have the property d
- Page 101 and 102: dealings with Vázquez and the Carv
- Page 103 and 104: Ríos or by ship to Montero’s out
- Page 105 and 106: alliances with the blancos to open
- Page 107 and 108: connections up and down the river t
- Page 109 and 110: With his money now in limbo and his
- Page 111 and 112: honorable merchant. His associates
- Page 113 and 114: meant more than establishing a docu
- Page 115 and 116: Uruguaiana and Salto. 80 Chaves and
- Page 117: complex laws “that they only unde
- Page 121 and 122: status. Public recognition of one
- Page 123 and 124: They reasoned that “one has to re
- Page 125 and 126: unanimous and respected testimony o
- Page 127 and 128: powerful figures like Urquiza, depe
- Page 129 and 130: CHAPTER 3 SOVEREIGN CONFLICTS THE R
- Page 131 and 132: conflicts between peripheral ranche
- Page 133 and 134: further agreed to provide payments
- Page 135 and 136: Sosa almost immediately responded.
- Page 137 and 138: funds, the imperial government took
- Page 139 and 140: Throughout the early 1830s, the Uru
- Page 141 and 142: Fernandes Braga, the provincial pre
- Page 143 and 144: Frustrated by the lack of progress,
- Page 145 and 146: cataloguing illegal property confis
- Page 147 and 148: also provided prominent local elite
- Page 149 and 150: As the 1850s dawned, the persistent
- Page 151 and 152: traffic along the Uruguay. Rosas fi
- Page 153 and 154: would order, they intend to be resp
- Page 155 and 156: economic and political relationship
- Page 157 and 158: fed back into broader political dis
- Page 159 and 160: advance their visions for a new nat
- Page 161 and 162: Estado Oriental and had fought at C
- Page 163 and 164: Brazilian officials opened secret n
- Page 165 and 166: The 1855 occupation reinvigorated e
- Page 167 and 168: end political violence in the inter
were considered suspect, particularly if they lacked connections to local power networks.<br />
There was a certain irony in all this given that merchants, landowners and traders in the<br />
borderlands were in nearly constant motion. What became important in securing one’s<br />
status as a vecino often lay in its recognition from local elites and officials.<br />
As borderlands traders like Blanes, Vidiella and Chaves placed their faith in<br />
prominent local vecinos to police their trading relationships, these groups in turn jealously<br />
guarded their power to delineate the boundaries between insiders and outsiders in the forum.<br />
In this way, the operation of borderlands legalities further increased centrifugal tensions<br />
even as commercial relationships brought the region closer together. Consider the<br />
statements by local officials in the eastern Uruguayan city of Minas. They sought to ban<br />
Manuel Cabral from even appearing in court as a witness and legal representative. To do so,<br />
the alcalde ordinario, Bartolomé Arambillete, drafted a letter to judicial representatives in<br />
Montevideo. In it, he commented: “Señor Cabral came from Montevideo some months ago<br />
without any relation or connection to this Pueblo.” 89 Arambillete went on to note that Cabral<br />
was “not a vecino nor a citizen, but a foreigner without any known trade or way to make a<br />
living when by his age he should rightfully have one.” 90 It is interesting that the alcalde<br />
explicitly drew a distinction between Cabral’s “foreignness” and his status as a vecino. This<br />
was critical in the borderlands city given its large and powerful Brazilian population. Despite<br />
their nationality, these residents certainly possessed the requisite social standing to appear in<br />
court. The alcalde also linked credibility with economic activity in the town. In short,<br />
<br />
Caballero c. Don Joaquin Noqueira sobre propiedad de una charca, AGN. Salto. Letrados Civiles, No.<br />
15 (1870) (land rights established based on the testimony of six “antiguos vecinos” around the<br />
Uruguayan city of Belen).<br />
89 Alcalde Ordinario de Minas, Bartolomé Arambillete al Juez L. de lo Civil en Montevideo, AGN-<br />
SJ. Montevideo. Civil: 1º Turno, C-7 (1835), 1.<br />
90 Ibid., 1-1bis.<br />
109 <br />
Change language