Defining responsibility: Printers, politics, and the law in early Republican Mexico City

TY - JOUR

T1 - Defining responsibility

T2 - Printers, politics, and the law in early Republican Mexico City

AU - Zeltsman, Corinna

N1 - Funding Information: I am grateful to the many people who read and helped me improve this article. In particular, I wish to acknowledge the two anonymous reviewers and the editors of the Hispanic American Historical Review for their insightful comments. I also thank Vanessa Freije, the participants of the 2015 Latin American and Caribbean Graduate Student Workshop at Duke University, the participants of the 2017 “Paper Technologies” conference held jointly at Wesleyan University and Yale University, and Sean Mannion for their helpful suggestions and guidance. This publication was made possible by support from the Social Science Research Council’s International Dissertation Research Fellowship and a Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship. 1. Gutiérrez Estrada, Carta dirigida. Publisher Copyright: © 2018 by Duke University Press.

PY - 2018/5/1

Y1 - 2018/5/1

N2 - This article explores how printers and their collaborators shaped the implementation and interpretation of freedom of the press laws in early republican Mexico City. Far from passive reproducers of texts written by elites, printers and other behind-the-scenes actors facilitated republican politics by navigating legal categories such as responsibility and authorship that were defined by liberal law yet under debate and unevenly enforced. Focusing on the production, dissemination, and fallout over a controversial 1840 promonarchist pamphlet written by the Yucatecan senator José Mariá Gutiérrez Estrada, the article uncovers a trio of collaborators, especially the young "printer citizen" Ignacio Cumplido, who undermined official efforts to consolidate state authority over political speech and deployed high-minded liberal principles as political strategy. By shifting focus from the pamphlet's well-reasoned arguments to its places of production, reception, and regulation, the article provides insight into how freedom of the press was implemented, manipulated, and debated on the ground.

AB - This article explores how printers and their collaborators shaped the implementation and interpretation of freedom of the press laws in early republican Mexico City. Far from passive reproducers of texts written by elites, printers and other behind-the-scenes actors facilitated republican politics by navigating legal categories such as responsibility and authorship that were defined by liberal law yet under debate and unevenly enforced. Focusing on the production, dissemination, and fallout over a controversial 1840 promonarchist pamphlet written by the Yucatecan senator José Mariá Gutiérrez Estrada, the article uncovers a trio of collaborators, especially the young "printer citizen" Ignacio Cumplido, who undermined official efforts to consolidate state authority over political speech and deployed high-minded liberal principles as political strategy. By shifting focus from the pamphlet's well-reasoned arguments to its places of production, reception, and regulation, the article provides insight into how freedom of the press was implemented, manipulated, and debated on the ground.

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U2 - https://doi.org/10.1215/00182168-4376666

DO - https://doi.org/10.1215/00182168-4376666

M3 - Review article

SN - 0018-2168

VL - 98

SP - 189

EP - 222

JO - HAHR - Hispanic American Historical Review

JF - HAHR - Hispanic American Historical Review

IS - 2

ER -