Introduction : justice, ethnicity, and gender in twentieth-century Guatemala -- Dictators, indÃgenas, and the legal system : intersections of race and crime -- "Rough and thorny terrain" : moonshine, gender, and ethnicity -- "Productive activity" : female vendors and Ladino authorities in the market -- Unnatural mothers and reproductive crimes : infanticide, abortion, and cross-dressing -- Wives in danger and dangerous women : domestic and female violence -- Honorable subjects : public insults, family feuds, and state power -- Conclusion : emboldened and constrained
Summary
This study of the Guatemalan legal system during the regimes of two of Latin America's most repressive dictators reveals the surprising extent to which Maya women used the courts to air their grievances and defend their human rights