28.06.2013 Views

“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...

“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...

“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

history in 1877. 24 Salto’s first juez letrado, Juan Gil, arrived that same year. After a short stay,<br />

Leandro Arteagada replaced Gil as the top judicial official in Salto’s department. 25<br />

A closer inspection of Arteagada’s two-year judicial administration in Salto, however,<br />

complicates this picture of Latorre’s neat “nationalization” of the judiciary. Arteagada<br />

unquestionably represented the authority of the national government in the town. At the<br />

same time, the local courts over which he presided remained predominantly fora for local<br />

elites to protect their personal reputations and in the process adjudicate their continued<br />

authority over property rights. Arteagada’s arrival provided local and national officials with a<br />

platform to work out the terms of their relationship. It also revealed the continuing power<br />

of aspects of borderlands legalities to define their respective spheres of influence. What had<br />

changed was that now the central government had a designated judicial official present to<br />

ratify the winners. This raised the stakes in these judicial battles further. It forced each side<br />

to channel even more energy into their judicial struggles. It also signaled a shift in the<br />

direction of Salto’s legal politics. Judicial struggles now aimed to influence not only local<br />

opinion, but also win ratification from the national government in Montevideo. Borderlands<br />

legalities persisted, but in a form that incorporated national politics into local equations.<br />

The smoldering struggles among the members of the JEA and other prominent local<br />

elites over the Raffo affair seemed to reignite upon Arteagada’s arrival. This time the<br />

conflict began over the operation of the city’s stockyards. Tomas Leal possessed a contract<br />

with the town to run the facility. Leal equally had relationships with various ranchers in the<br />

surrounding countryside. He was also a political ally of Miguel Forteza and Emilio Thevenet<br />

























































<br />

24 Juan E. Pivel Devoto and Alcira Ranieri de Pivel Devoto, El Uruguay a Fines del Siglo<br />

XIX (Montevideo: Editorial Medina, 1973), 37.<br />

25 D. José Maria Guerra c. D. Atanasildo Saldaña por cobre de pesos, AGN-SJ. Salto. Letrados,<br />

n. 2 (1876). This is the first case in Salto’s judicial records heard by a juez letrado del<br />

departamento.<br />

343
<br />


<br />

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!