Sexual Witchcraft, Colonialism, and Women's Powers: Views from the Mexican Inquisition

In 1774 Jose de Ugalde, a white (espanol) muleteer from a town near Queretaro, appeared before the Mexican Inquisition to lodge an accusation against his mestiza wife, who he claimed had used witchcraft to make him "stupid" (atontado) throughout the seventeen years of their marriage. 1 He had recently threatened to kill her if she did not admit what she had done to put him in this state; his wife then told him about the yellow, green, and black herbs which her sister had given her, advising that she serve them to him in water, the com drink of atole, or food, "so that he would never forget her, or watch over her, or get back too early from his trips." He had learned that she was having an affair, and she shocked him when she went to confess and took communion as though nothing had happened. This so angered him that he tied her to a mesquite tree in order to beat her, reproaching her for having confessed and taken communion sacrilegiously, but "she had gotten loose without his knowing how." When he bound her to the tree a second time, she "called for help to all the saints in the heaven's court and he was not even able to give her a single beating." When for a third time he took her out to the countryside with the intention of beating her, he had no sooner accused her than "they made up and returned home together." For Jose de Ugalde, the fact that his wife was misbehaving and that he could not give her the beating she properly deserved was only explainable as the effect of witchcraft. That she, rather than he, was shamelessly having an extramarital affair and that he could do nothing about it showed the extent of her supernatural powers. In bringing his case to the Inquisition he did not worry about admitting his intentions to beat his wife, because it was considered perfectly legitimate for a husband to physically punish his wife when she infringed T