Bourbon Policing in Late Colonial Mexico City

On any given night, the men lit the lamps on their assigned blocks, blew their whistles, shouted “¡Sereno!” and dragged inebriated residents to jail. On other less tranquil evenings, they skirmished with militiamen or imbibed with the very same people they were supposed to apprehend. The late colonial patrolmen or serenos of Mexico City, their neighborhoods, and their foes are the subjects of Nicole von Germeten’s immersive and engaging monograph.