“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...

important) but also dealt with defining one’s place within trading networks and the local
social order. Controlling the courthouse – the central place were these stands of borderlands
legalities were assembled and articulated – was a vital source of power for rival local elites.
Because the courthouse stood at the center of borderlands networks of reciprocity
and reputation, factional conflicts frequently revolved around it. The courthouse itself was
an informal space. The administration of justice occurred in whatever civic buildings were
available. These sites ranged from churches, as was frequently the practice in Alegrete, to
police offices, theaters, commercial houses and even on occasion private residences. 20 The
unofficial nature of the tribunal in part reflected the predominance of written pleadings in
many cases. Oral arguments and jury trials were rare, leaving little need for a permanent
public forum for hearing cases. At the same time, it also reflected the intensely local and
personal nature of many of the proceedings in the borderlands. The goal for claimants in
going to court and for judges in issuing a verdict was to express personal connections and
local relationships, not necessarily manifest the authority and majesty of a distant and
abstract state.
The city of Alegrete provides an excellent example of the central role litigation and
legal politics played in the borderlands. Conflicts to defend the alternative legalities that
sustained local reputations and cross-border reciprocal ties produced an escalating series of
clashes over control of local courtrooms, judicial posts and the law. These struggles
ultimately exacerbated factional divisions on both sides of the border. With its comarca
20 For instance, Manoel de Freitas Valle’s proceeding and the subsequent investigations
occurred in Alegrete’s church. As we will see in the next section, the uniquely public juicios de
imprenta proceedings in Salto occurred in the local theater that is (still) situated just off the
town’s main square. Other cases, such as the dispute between Manuel Blanes and Francisco
Vidiella occurred in commercial offices in Concordia, as well as a more formal commercial
tribunal in Concepción, Entre Ríos.
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