Contesting Criminality, Reimagining the State: Women and Alcohol in Nineteenth-Century Guatemala

In the aftermath of independence from Spain, Guatemalan elites and subalterns had different visions of their new nation.  Elites rushed to reconstitute state structures that would allow them to pursue political control (order) and economic prosperity (progress).  What common folk desired from their new nation-state, rather than order and progress, were local political autonomy and a respite from the myriad colonial-era taxes and monopolies that had undermined their subsistence strategies.  The purpose of my paper will be to illuminate the various ways that Guatemalan women participated in and influenced nation-state formation by focusing on the constant tension over alcohol policy, and in particular state policies that criminalized its production and sale.  Alcohol was an important revenue source for the state over the entire nineteenth century, but it was also crucial to the survival of many Guatemalan households.  The state attempted to maximize alcohol-related income by selling a small number of monopoly licenses and criminalizing all other participation.  This generated continual conflict with women, who were the most frequent producers and vendors of alcohol.  Despite fines, property loss, and imprisonment, subaltern Guatemalan women regularly ignored postcolonial alcohol statutes and repeatedly pressured the state to legalize their activities.  Local officials sometimes echoed their demands, and insurgents even called for and implemented decriminalization upon achieving state power, although they typically reversed course before too long.  Although female alcohol traffickers did not succeed in dramatically refashioning the state, nevertheless, their persistent challenges to state agencies and policies over the long term did shape the terms of the debate over how the state should function and on whose behalf.  Successful or not, “everyday” women articulated an alternative vision of the nation-state that resonated throughout Guatemala’s nineteenth century.