[Manuscript Request, Denial, and Report for a Divorce in Mexican Texas at the Beginning of the 19th Century]

[Monclova: May 12, 1800. Good plus.. [4]pp., on a bifolium. Light edge wear and staining. Some moderate offsetting. In a neat, legible hand. A very interesting manuscript record of a colonial Mexican marriage dispute in 1800, which includes a request for separation by María Josefa Pruneda from her husband, a report on her “illicit friendship” with another man, and an official warning concerning her behavior from the judiciary. The manuscript copies María Josefa Pruneda’s petition to the governor of Coahuila y Tejas to separate from her husband, Miguel Maldonado, claiming he neglected her. The document begins, “Con respecto al informe que el señor gobernador me pide en remitir en presentacion que hiso ante su señoria Maria Teresa Pruneda, alegando que su marido ademas el no haverla assistido desde que se caso con ella, se ha mudado aun Rancho Yermo Nombrado Sn. Andres distante de mariado de poblado donde esta mui espuesta al Riergo de los Enemigos....”

However, in the following report,The intendant of Santa Rosa states that María Josefa refused to live with her husband due to her father’s influence and because of her “illicit friendship” with a young man named Thomas Zaralsa. The report notes that Miguel Maldonado was a hardworking man, while the petitioner enjoyed her husband’s absences. The governor, Manuel Antonio Cordero y Bustamante, ordered the Justice of the Villa de Monclova to ensure she cohabited with her husband and warned her father to cease influencing her. A final report states that María Josefa was warned but disobeyed and left the town, saying, "No cumplio pues se fue, sin presentarse, a el tiempo de su salida loge. partisipo a Vm. porque en su inteligensia lede, el debido cumplimiento segun sed ordena."

A fascinating delineation of the process for seeking divorce and the difficulties of doing so in late colonial Mexico.