Violent Delights, Violent Ends: Sex, Race, and Honor in Colonial Cartagena de Indias

Colonial Cartagena de Indias women strategically manipulated sexual and gendered norms to navigate Spanish judicial systems, leveraging rhetoric around sex and honor to advance their cases. Nicole von Germeten's analysis of 24 judicial cases from the late 16th to early 19th centuries reveals how these women—spanning enslaved, wealthy, black, white, peninsulares, and creole backgrounds—exploited colonial legal biases for personal benefit. While the study offers detailed insights into a small sample of cases involving sexual violence, honor killings, witchcraft, adultery, and estupro, its narrow focus on womanhood as a transgenerational marker may overlook broader social dynamics of race, power, and class. The work contributes to early modern Caribbean historiography but risks generalizations due to limited primary evidence and analytical detachment from Cartagena's historical context.

Gómez, P. F. (2015). Violent Delights, Violent Ends: Sex, Race, and Honor in Colonial Cartagena de Indias. Hispanic American Historical Review, 95(1), 152–154. https://doi.org/10.1215/00182168-2837024