“He Wanted to Reprimand Her”: Gender, Colonization, and Spouse Murder in the Rio de la Plata

In 1778, José de Gálvez, the head of the Council of the Indies and long-time minister for Carlos III, was increasingly concerned that the British were eyeing the mainland Patagonian coast down to the Strait of Magellan for themselves. In response, the crown decided to create a series of new outposts to help to secure the Patagonian coast for Spain. To populate these outposts, Gálvez commanded the interim intendant of La Coruña, Jorge Astraudi, to issue an edict calling for two hundred families from poor and overpopulated northwestern Spain. The response was enthusiastic, and between 1778 and 1783, more than 1900 peasants were transported on 13 ships to the Rio de la Plata.  Unfortunately,  the Patagonian project was quickly abandoned and the colonists were resettled in new outposts outside of Montevideo and Buenos Aires where royal authorities hoped that the peasants would tame what they perceived to be the lawlessness of the region and stabilize family life. Indeed, for the most part, in their homes, the colonizers lived peaceful, orderly lives. However, within ten years after settlement, two of the first six couples to volunteer and at least two other colonizers killed their spouses. Marcelo Mendián killed his troublesome wife, asserting that “he wanted to reprimand her” for her violent, lascivious and drunken ways.  In the other cases, the wives had their husbands murdered.  In this paper, I intend to explore the role of competing gender expectations in these spousal murders.  My earlier work has demonstrated that women in northwestern Spain had extensive independence, sexual freedom, and economic authority; however, at least in these cases, their attempts to assert that independence in the colonial setting led to murder.