“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...
“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ... “MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...
conceded that Pedro had been baptized in Uruguay, but continued to claim that he was born in Brazil and properly a slave. He then asked for a delay in the proceeding so that he could produce additional evidence to establish his claim. With Cándido seemingly off-balance, a judicial finding that Pedro was a free Uruguayan citizen seemed imminent. Yet as Pedro’s family worked to erect boundaries around his nationality to protect him from slavery, Cándido also drew upon his reciprocal relationships with Uruguayan officials. These borderlands associations provided a mechanism to extend his property claims across the border to reach his putative slave. Cándido did this by presenting a letter from João Xavier de Azambuja, indicating that he had sold Pedro to his son, Geronimo, in 1847. Azambuja admitted that the two had not registered the original sale. Rather, they had only used a “private document” which “had been lost.” 23 But now that the slave had fled his son’s custody, he offered up the letter as proof of his son’s property rights over Pedro. The letter, written in full awareness of the ongoing litigation, seemed to offer fairly weak evidence of actual ownership. The fact that the Azambujas’ petition was to Diego Lamas also indicated that the documents would not be sufficient to support their claims. Recall that during the Guerra Grande, Lamas had fought against the incursions of Brazilian ranchers into the Estado Oriental. He had also consistently demanded respect for Uruguayan laws from Brazilian officials. In short, Lamas appeared to be a stalwart supporter of blanco efforts to forge Uruguayan sovereignty over its northern borderlands. At the same time, however, Lamas also utilized cross-border reciprocal relationships with a number of Brazilians to facilitate his commercial operations. He then used these connections to augment his standing in Salto and other jurisdictions. This is to say, like the Azambujas and others, Lamas was well versed in the system of borderlands legalities that 23 Información relativa al negro Pedro, reclamando como esclavo, 4bis. 268
defined their respective places in the periphery. With this in mind, if we view Cándido’s actions not from the perspective of challenging the validity of Pedro’s claims to Uruguayan citizenship but as an attempt to cement cross-border connections between his family and Lamas, the documents become much more powerful. That is to say, we need to again situate his appeal within the system of borderlands legalities operating in the periphery. João Xavier de Azambuja, the letter’s author, possessed long-standing social and economic connections with the Uruguayan commander. By presenting the letter to Uruguayan officials, Cándido emphasized these cross-border associations and the borderlands porosity underpinning them. Put differently, the personal connections between the two elite men trumped the sovereign divisions upon which Pedro’s family depended for their freedom. We can see how Diego Lamas had availed himself of these connections with João Xavier in another litigation in Alegrete in 1854. In that proceeding, Jeremias José Nunes, a landowner in Uruguaiana, had sought the recovery of a number of cattle from the heirs of Liberato Guterres pursuant to a contract between the two men. According to Nunes’ petition, the contract stipulated that Guterres gained the rights to market all of Nunes’ cattle located across the border in the Estado Oriental. In exchange, Guterres agreed to pay Nunes some four pesos per head of cattle, less any “tax” payments he made to Lamas for the right to extract the cattle from Nunes’ lands. Guterres then allegedly removed 502 head of cattle from the Estado Oriental without making payments to either Lamas or Nunes. When Guterres subsequently died, his heirs refused to honor the agreement. They claimed 269
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defined their respective places in the periphery. With this in mind, if we view Cándido’s<br />
actions not from the perspective of challenging the validity of Pedro’s claims to Uruguayan<br />
citizenship but as an attempt to cement cross-border connections between his family and<br />
Lamas, the documents become much more powerful. That is to say, we need to again<br />
situate his appeal within the system of borderlands legalities operating in the periphery. João<br />
Xavier de Azambuja, the letter’s author, possessed long-standing social and economic<br />
connections with the Uruguayan commander. By presenting the letter to Uruguayan<br />
officials, Cándido emphasized these cross-border associations and the borderlands porosity<br />
underpinning them. Put differently, the personal connections between the two elite men<br />
trumped the sovereign divisions upon which Pedro’s family depended for their freedom.<br />
We can see how Diego Lamas had availed himself of these connections with João<br />
Xavier in another litigation in Alegrete in 1854. In that proceeding, Jeremias José Nunes, a<br />
landowner in Uruguaiana, had sought the recovery of a number of cattle from the heirs of<br />
Liberato Guterres pursuant to a contract between the two men. According to Nunes’<br />
petition, the contract stipulated that Guterres gained the rights to market all of Nunes’ cattle<br />
located across the border in the Estado Oriental. In exchange, Guterres agreed to pay<br />
Nunes some four pesos per head of cattle, less any “tax” payments he made to Lamas for<br />
the right to extract the cattle from Nunes’ lands. Guterres then allegedly removed 502 head<br />
of cattle from the Estado Oriental without making payments to either Lamas or Nunes.<br />
When Guterres subsequently died, his heirs refused to honor the agreement. They claimed<br />
269 <br />
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