Death by Murder

I’m going to analyze the final document, the note pinned to the body of Maria De Caravantes.

Origins:  This document was written in Mixtec originally in 1684, which is a language of southern Mexico.  In it, the author wishes to explain why he murdered his wife (she was stepping out on him) and also demand that the person his wife was stepping out on him with be brought to justice (for adultery, I guess).  It is addressed to “all of you lords who are officials (justices), the lord lieutenant, or the lord alcalde mayor, or the Nudzahui (‘Mixtec’) officials.” Presumably they are the folks who could bring the other man to justice.

Motives: The author wants Domingo, the man his wife (he claims) was having sex with, to be brought to justice for having extramarital sex with his wife.  He also wants to exonerate himself.  He blames Domingo for the murder of his wife (although it was he himself who did it).  He says “[b]ecause of him I have  killed my wife.”  He is trying to give a rationale for his actions.

Perspective: The author clearly feels pretty righteous about what he did.  He refuses to take responsibility for it, and seems to think that murder is the appropriate punishment for adultery.  He also places much confidence in the justices to whom he addressed the letter.  He says “[y]ou will know lord lieutenant what to do, so that justice will be done.”

Text:  The author recounts the several times he caught Domingo and his wife Maria together, and mentions the cape he tore off of Domingo as he was running away one of those times.  He presents this as evidence that it was Domingo who was the man, and says that if he denies it, “[t]ake him to the rack, there e will confess.”  In fact, he emphasizes in three different paragraphs that torture will make the truth come to light.

Information: This documents, to me, says that folks took adultery pretty seriously during this time period (not that I’m saying it isn’t serious).  Serious enough to murder over, anyway.  The author seems pretty confident Domingo will get his just reward as well.  The law, then, probably also took adultery very seriously.  He also, in the letter, mentions where he is hiding out, so he must be pretty confident about being exonerated for the killing.  That says to me that probably honor killings like this might have been something fairly common, or at least not totally bizarre.  Now, if someone left a note on the corpse the media would call him/her “the letter killer” or something.  He also writes the cross several times, signifying that he is telling the truth.  He must have put a lot of faith in that, presumably because it was such a serious thing to do, to swear to the truth.  Or at least he believed that others would believe him because he drew a cross.