Poor and abandoned single mothers in 19th century Mexico City

This article deals with the social, legal and cultural situation of single mothers in Mexico City all through the nineteenth century. Part of a cultural construction made by these women of their own histories is reconstructed through the analysis of legal files and demands made by abandoned mothers. This work was completed through three analytical levels. First, a demographic study of illegitimacy in Mexico City. Second, the study of norms and laws related to demands for alimony, and the unfair liberal form of 1857, which prohibited the investigation of fatherhood. Third, the study of the slow historical transit from the discourse centered on victimization and seduction of women, to another related to individuation and recognition of female sexuality. Finally, the article opens a discussion on advantages and disadvantages of the liberal reform for nineteenth-century women.