UCLA

Studies of rapto in scholarship on Chile are extremely scarce. Research done in social history and history of mentalities have looked into cases of rapto among others in order to determine the “judicial-legal culture” of legal actors in colonial and nineteenth-century Chile. However, scholars have not paid attention to the specific rhetorical and judicial strategies deployed by individual legal actors in cases of rapto with a microhistory approach and a focus on women’s agency. In this thesis, I examine the judicial and rhetorical strategies used by legal actors in a case of rapto through the lens of gender, honor, and its relation to class. I look into a case of rapto by seduction that takes place during the years 1823-1824 in Santiago. I argue that actors at the trial turn to several judicial and rhetorical strategies to bolster their cases but also to argue about larger social issues and ideas particular to the early nineteenth century.