Forced and Forbidden Sex: Rape and Sexual Freedom in Dictatorial Guatemala
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David Carey Jr. [1]
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[1] University of Southern Maine
University of Southern Maine
City of Portland, Estados Unidos
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- Localización: The Americas: A quarterly review of inter-american cultural history, ISSN 0003-1615, Vol. 69, Nº. 3, 2013, págs. 357-389
- Idioma: inglés
- Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
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Resumen
As the sun was setting on December 12, 1907, the 16-year-old Tecla Xicay and her sister Inocenta were returning to their village of Tonajuyu, San Martín Jilotepeque (henceforth San Martín), in highland Guatemala when a portly ladino with a thin blonde mustache jumped out from behind a gate, took off his shoes, and attempted to rape Tecla. When she resisted, he hit her twice in the neck and then stabbed her in the back as she fled. Illiterate and monolingual speakers of Kaqchikel-Maya (henceforth Kaqchikel), the sisters recounted their harrowing ordeal through an interpreter the next day in Chimaltenango's municipal court. Apparentiy eager to escape the grasp of the state and ladino world, the two indigenous women did not tarry in Chimaltenango. Despite the military surgeon's insistence that Xicay be admitted to the hospital to cure her open wound, she refused, saying she would take care of it herself. Ladino and patriarchal in their design and operation, institutions such as courts and hospitals that held the potential to assist indigenous women often alienated them.
