“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...

worked to challenge their ability to provide justice for the correntino merchant. Lamas in
particular used his power to prevent Tejo and Llupes from securing justice for their ally.
Cristobo’s release became a tool to damage the personal, legal and commercial reputations of
factional rivals on both sides of the river. In this sense, legal proceedings – and judicial
outcomes – reflected the constant ebb and flow of personal power and prestige as political
opponents maneuvered for position in even the most seemingly prosaic legal matters.
Despite his failure to obtain justice in Salto, Gelabert continued to utilize his
factional connections to pursue Cristobo. After several months of delays, Gelabert received
word that Cristobo had traveled to Brazil. Gelabert contacted officials and quickly obtained
Cristobo’s arrest in Uruguaiana. Triumphantly, Gelabert wrote about his ability to secure
justice against his former apprentice:
It seems that a substantial part of the Province [of Corrientes] knows well an event
which honors me, the capture of the thief Gallego in Brazil; despite the infamous
nature of three or four miserable types, more judges have appeared in my name and
to their good credit and reason have blunted their infamous pretensions. 204
Through this statement, Gelabert explicitly recognized the vital role local networks of
witnesses linked through factional political alliances stretching across the borderlands played
in his quest for justice and personal honor. As he pursued Cristobo from forum to forum
and navigated the shoals of local legal politics, Gelabert’s continued ability to locate and
deploy “more judges” proved vital in undoing the damage that the factional struggles in
Mercedes had caused to his commercial enterprise.
Gelabert’s case again underlines the intensely localized, but also deeply integrated
nature of borderlands legalities. His legal troubles stemmed from a disagreement with a
judge in Mercedes in what appeared to be a relatively mundane criminal matter. The conflict
204 AGPC. Fondo Mantilla. Archivo Valdéz, v. 18, Miguel V. Gelabert al Sor. D. Gregorio
Valdés (November 29, 1859).
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