Profit and Passion
Profit and Passion
Transactional Sex in Colonial Mexico
Nicole von Germeten
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
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University of California Press
Oakland, California
© 2018 by Nicole von Germeten
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Germeten, Nicole von, author.
Title: Profit and passion : transactional sex in colonial Mexico / Nicole von Germeten.
Description: Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2018] | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2017045678 (print) | LCCN 2017046755 (ebook) | ISBN 9780520969704 (ebook) | ISBN 9780520297296 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780520297319 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Prostitutes—Mexico—History.
Classification: LCC HQ151.A5 (ebook) | LCC HQ151.A5 G47 2018 (print) | DDC 306.740972—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017045678
Manufactured in the United States of America
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Dedicated to my parents, Joan and Jim von Germeten
Contents
4.Courtesans and Their Lovers
5.Streetwalkers and the Police
6.Multiple Prostitute Identities
7.Selling Sex, Saving the Family
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
In this short acknowledgment, I can list only a few of the many individuals who influenced this project. First, I am very grateful for the kindness of my students and colleagues at the School of History, Philosophy, and Religion at Oregon State University. This especially includes members of the writing group organized by Marisa Chappell and Kara Ritzheimer, who read and edited several chapters with their typical energy and intelligence. Robert Nye continued to give his very useful feedback and dependable editing, and I am so lucky to benefit from the friendship and hospitality of both Bob and Mary Jo Nye. Trina Hogg offered very helpful theoretical suggestions in the final revisions phase. Ben Mutschler and Dwanee Howard facilitated funding for research travel. The OSU Center for the Humanities, under the direction of David Robinson, awarded me a term off teaching to begin the writing process and opportunities to present my work. Joseph Orosco hosted an enlightening conversation with his session on sex work today. Undergraduate students in my History of Sexuality and Latin American History classes helped me by reading and discussing drafts of these chapters. I had the great fortune to enjoy the humor, intelligence, and impressive discipline of graduate students Aimee Hisey and Abby Perkins. They both helped and supported me at a moment’s notice and made me laugh for years while I worked on this book. Aimee especially deserves thanks for her work on the bibliography, footnotes, and chapter 1. She, nor anyone else acknowledged here, bears no responsibility for any errors in this text.
Outside of Oregon, I enjoyed insightful editing and content suggestions from Marie Kelleher, Kristen Block, Martin Nesvig, and Ken Mills. Marie also kindly invited me to present at Cal State Long Beach, as did John Hunt at Utah State University. Linda Arnold and Karen Melvin provided valuable references for archival material that I would not have found without their guidance.
At University of California Press, I am grateful for the enthusiasm and support of Bradley Depew and Kate Marshall, as well as Margaret Chowning. I humbly thank Pete Sigal and Zeb Tortorici for reading the manuscript draft that they received and offering suggestions that greatly improved the book.
I appreciate my ongoing conversations with Michael Lopez about chapter 5 and his perspective on the topic of the book, as well as many other things. Thank you to Inez for your exceptional kindness and humor and your thoughtful insistence on my dedicating this book to my parents.
Introduction
There are passionate whores and polished whores, painted whores and illustrious whores, whores of reputation and those who have been condemned. . . . There are some who work at night, others who work by day. . . . There are eastern whores, western whores, northern whores, whores who wear disguises, drunk whores, reserved whores, whores that range in age from very young to very old. There are rising whores and falling whores, whores with hymens and whores without, Sunday whores, and whores who wait until Saturday to wash. . . . There are perfect whores, secret and public whores, devout whores, hypocritical whores, whores young and old, whores whose pockets jingle when they walk. There are pandering whores and modern whores, mature whores and celestial whores, and those who try to live a good life in shut up houses, as well as honest women who try the trade according to their need. 1
In a picaresque tale set in early-sixteenth-century Rome, a scene opens with La Lozana Andaluza (her name, loosely translated, means “the lusty Andalusian woman”) relaxing in bed with a client. As a single woman and émigrée from Spain, La Lozana wants to learn from her satiated lover about the “life that concubines lead in this province.” After hearing his response, the litany quoted above, La Lozana expresses fatigue with this list of the seemingly countless putas “whores”) on the Roman streets, “as thick as bees in a beehive.”2 This 1528 account describes the early-modern world (specifically, regions under Spanish influence) as an era when whores proliferated, offering their clients almost endless options in terms of age, looks, experience, methods, and attitudes. Seduced by this fictional pillow talk, this book tells the history of women labeled public women, whores, and prostitutes in New Spain’s archival records, embracing the complexity of “all the characters who populate the prostitute imaginary,” as well as the ambiguities and limitations of documenting the history of sexuality via written sources.3
This book takes for granted that Spanish and Spanish American literary and legal understandings of gender and sexuality have vital importance in the context of the rise of global imperialism. Spain’s New World viceroyalties,