Legal and Social Fatherhood in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Mexico

The concept of social reproduction is usually taken to entail childbearing and childcare, household labor, and work outside the home that sustains the family. This model of family formation is based on a fundamental gender division of labor, with reproduction labeled feminine and work labeled masculine. Yet some historical debates over family formation may destabilize that divide. This paper examines the case of a contested adoption of an orphaned boy in mid-nineteenth-century Mexico City to explore definitions and intersections of social and legal fatherhood, or, I suggest, a masculine model of social reproduction. The case exposes competing but related criteria for family formation.  One emerges from the legal issues at stake.  The early 1850s were a time of political conflict and instability in Mexico.  The adoption case went to the supreme court as jurists deliberated which branch of republican government had the power to create paternal authority, patria potestad, a power invested in the king under colonial law.  Other criteria for family formation emerged from the dispute between the two litigants.  Those models turned on definitions of social fatherhood, one based on social bonds such as compadrazgo and community ties and the other on individual social standing. The implications of the case are broader than the fate of one child. All facets of the case point to a concept of the family premised on masculine social roles and authority.  The case clearly illuminates the state’s interest in family formation and the close link between paternal and republican powers almost a decade prior to Mexico’s liberal Reform.  The litigants’ arguments and accusations expose evolving models of masculinity. Thus, litigants and jurists alike were exploring the possibility and ramifications of what might be called a masculine model of social reproduction, that is, families formed without sexual reproduction or feminine care giving.