Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2006 Angels or Monsters?: Violent Crimes and Violent Children in Mexico City, 1927-1932 Jonathan Weber Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES ANGELS OR MONSTERS?: VIOLENT CRIMES AND VIOLENT CHILDREN IN MEXICO CITY, 1927-1932 BY JONATHAN WEBER A Thesis submitted to the Department of History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2006 The members of the Committee approve the thesis of Jonathan Weber defended on October 6, 2006. ______________________________ Robinson Herrera Professor Directing Thesis ______________________________ Rodney Anderson Committee Member ______________________________ Charles Upchurch Committee Member The Office of Graduate Studies has verified and approved the above named committee members. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The first person I owe a great deal of thanks to is Dr. Linda Arnold of Virginia Tech University. Dr. Arnold was gracious enough to help me out in Mexico City by taking me under her wing and showing me the ropes. She also is responsible for being my soundboard for early ideas that I “bounced off” her. I look forward to being able to work with her some more for the dissertation. Another very special thanks goes out to everyone at the AGN, especially the janitorial staff for engaging me in a multitude of conversations as well as the archival cats that hang around outside (even the one who bit me and resulted in a series of rabies vaccinations begun in the Centro de Salud in Tlalpan). To my Mexican family, Hector and Glafira, who treated me like their own son and who I will always be indebted to and look forward to seeing soon. Thanks to Francisco, Celia, and Isabel (Hector and Glafira’s children) who took it upon themselves to show this gringo the town. All of my soccer pals down there on the fútbol rápido team; I cannot wait until we play again. To the staff at Jurídica at UNAM, who kindly assisted me in finding as many journals as possible that dealt with minors. Now on to the people back here at Florida State. I owe many thanks to Dr. Herrera for his interest in my thesis topic, his expert guidance, and keeping me on track. I look forward to working with you for the dissertation as well as within the classroom. I would also like to thank Dr. Matt Childs, who has known me from day one here at FSU, and has helped me tremendously in my historical writing as well as helping me become comfortable in the classroom during my first semester. To the legendary Dr. Rodney Anderson or as he is known around here Don Rodney (DR), a special thanks for keeping me interested in Mexican history (hoping to aspire to your prestige one day) and helping me adjust to life as a graduate student as we shared similar undergraduate backgrounds. To my friends here at FSU in the Department of History: Claudia, Vincent, Jon, Holly, Angie, Seth, Monica, Sarah, Andrea, Tam, Crista, and Sheppard, many thanks. Another thanks to Kendra for putting up with me, helping me edit, helping with drafts, and too many other things to list. Also, thanks to Colleen and Angie T. Frog for their help. iii Finally, to my parents who have afforded me many luxuries that I probably have not deserved. They always believed in me and now as a “professional student” I know they are proud of my accomplishments and hope that I will finish soon so they can stop footing part of the bill. Also, thanks to my sister Kari, who will be making the real money as an engineer, I may need to borrow some of it. Also, I cannot forget my kitties (here and back home): Ajax, Max, Dooley, Tut, Rosie, Mollie, Jerry, Lucy, Uno, and Tippy and the puppies Georgie and Bear. If I forgot anyone, I apologize. I will get you next time. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract .....................................................................................vi INTRODUCTION ................................................................... 1 1. “IN THE HOME HE ALWAYS BEHAVES CORRECTLY”: MINORS AND HOMICIDES IN MEXICO CITY ...................9 2. “FALLEN ANGELS”: CHILD PROSTITUTION IN MEXICO CITY .......................26 3. “SATISFYING HIS SEXUAL APPETITE”: RAPE COMMITTED BY MINORS IN MEXICO CITY .......43 CONCLUSION ......................................................................61 APPENDIX ............................................................................66 BIBLIOGRAPHY...................................................................67 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ..................................................77 v ABSTRACT Based upon archival sources located in Mexico, this thesis represents a focused attempt at analyzing the factors affecting the punishment of juvenile offenders in late 1920s and early 1930s Mexico City. I argue that different crimes, homicide, prostitution, and rape, merited punishments that were prescribed to uniquely fit a suspect based on elite views of what represented the model family, education, and sexual behavior. The elite views were represented by state officials in the Tribunal para Menores, a court established in January 1927, to specifically deal with minors, legally defined as anyone under the age of 18. Prior to the establishment of the Tribunal para Menores, minors were adjudicated in adult courts and placed in adult correctional facilities. However, the Tribunal represented the first attempt in Mexico City to separate child from adult. Correctional schools were established that solely housed minors and in most cases, prison sentences alongside adults were no longer acceptable. Instead, minors were placed in correctional schools where the ultimate goal was rehabilitation so minors could re- enter society as productive members of the nation. vi INTRODUCTION Background Bathed in blood, Guadalupe Belmont stood silent, frozen in horror from what had just occurred. On September 30, 1931 a gang of youths led by Brígido Waguer entered Santa Cantarina, a store owned by José Urbano Belmont. One of the accomplices, Margarito Escutia, entered the locale first in order to cause a diversion, by asking if the store carried cookies.1 Within a few minutes, Brígido entered followed by another accomplice, Luis Martínez; the two closed the doors to the store. José Urbano Belmont begged the minors not to hurt him but his pleading was met with the sound of flesh being punctured over and over again as Brígido and Luis plunged their knives into the body of the store owner. During the commission of the crime, Guadalupe Belmont, the wife of José, was in the back of the store checking their inventory for cookies and when she came back to the front, she was left speechless. The youths quickly left the store, leaving Guadalupe unharmed but covered in her husband’s blood as she checked on her husband’s lifeless body. The violent attack by the Waguer gang was not uncommon; minors routinely carried out crimes committed in Mexico City during the late 1920s and early 1930s. The city itself had been rapidly growing since the turn of the twentieth century, in large part due to President Porfirio Díaz’s attempts to modernize the city, first began with Emperor Maximilian. According to Pablo Piccato, city authorities were licensed to create distinct socioeconomic neighborhoods that would allow upper and middle class residents the opportunity to live in an affluent environment.2 New living quarters for the lower classes were planned away from the upper-classes’ living space, so as to avoid any chance of overlapping socioeconomic neighborhoods. 1 El Archivo General de la Nación (hereafter AGN), El Consejo Tutelar para Menores Infractores (hereafter CTMI), caja 11, expediente 4523, Miguel Ramírez Hernández, 16-17. 2 Pablo Piccato, City of Suspects: Crime in Mexico City, 1900-1931 (Durham: Duke University Press, 2001), 19. While allowing access to elegant buildings, dilapidated structures were torn down in order to rebuild parts of the city that kept with the theme of progression. 1 The attempt to quarantine the poor from the rich, however, was not as successful as planned. The construction of new homes and neighborhoods required labor and materials, which were often provided by members of the lower classes. In order to obtain basic necessities, the poor often had to leave their homes and venture into areas where they could obtain such goods, which usually meant entering more wealthy neighborhoods. Piccato explains that this type of behavior was driven by everyday needs that caused the artificial boundaries between rich and poor to be blurred.3 The attempts to separate poor from rich failed. Lower class citizens also began to challenge these artificial barriers by engaging in undesirable behaviors in both private and public spaces throughout the city, for example, fighting, murder, rape, etc.: behaviors that were considered atypical of the well-to-do. Elites felt threatened by the poor because they did not respect these artificial barriers by committing crimes wherever and whenever they wanted. The problem of crime was compounded by a tremendous population migration in Mexico City during the first part of the 20th century. Government officials modeled the structure of the city after successful large European cities, which created many job opportunities. Inhabitants of surrounding rural areas began moving into the city in order to fill the positions created during the growth process. With Mexico City becoming part of the ever industrializing Western World, some working families found themselves with wayward and incorrigible children.4 As a result, crime among youths (those under the age of 18) became a major problem for Mexico City and progressive reformers sought to establish a place where juveniles could be judged and sentenced among their peers and no longer among adults. In January of 1927, the Tribunal para Menores was established in Mexico City and was primarily based upon the first U.S. juvenile court, which was established in Chicago, Illinois at the end of the nineteenth century.5 The goal of the Mexican Tribunal 3 Pablo Piccato, City of Suspects, 21.