Random question: prison in Mexico in 1500s

[erinbow]

Friendslist, save me! I am reading about the history of prisons (interesting!) but so far have not come up with the answer to the question I really want: where would a person be held awaiting trial in Mexico City in the late 1500s?

Anyone know? Or know who would know? Or have a book to recommend?

I already asked at little details, where someone

Comments

[ljrags]

My question would be were trials held in that day and age? What sort of legal body was there? Hmmm. GOOD QUESTION.

[erinbow]

Yes. The church, in particular, held elaborate trials, but the even the civil authorities were pretty keen on doting their Is and crossing their Ts. (At least in Spain and New Spain.) It's a bit early for peopled to be jailed as punishment. (That's a pretty new idea, did you know?)

But what I haven't been able track down is what the jail where people were held was like. In particular I want to know if there were cells or just a big room.

[drmeglet]

Husband says that they didn't really have due process, it's mostly the Conquistadors taking over. He seems to agree they weren't jailed. However, I'm thinking this is more in the early-mid 1500s, things may have settled down to more civil law by 1593. I told him about this being trial for witchcraft in the late 1500s, and he suggested stocks in the public square, but we both think that's too New England, and not sure about Mexico City.

You might want to look through this book I found in online searching: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/20321
I searched for the text "prisoner" within the text and found lots of horrible things that were done to people taken prisoner, mostly the native peoples of Mexico (New Spain).

[erinbow]

Thanks for this... Actually I've been surprised in my research at how keen on dotting Is and crossing Ts Cortez was personally. The Spanish were very legally minded in general, it seems, and did conduct elaborate trials. (Fair is a whole nother question -- but certainly elaborate.) And people were held in prison while awaiting said trails. I just don't know where/how.

The online bok is really interseting, but probably useful mostly as an example of the "Black Legend" -- stuff the English have to say about the Spanish in that period is suspect.

[drmeglet]

ok, so it's heavily biased "history". Are you writing a fiction or a history book? Or a bit of both? I mean you do what you can with research, and when you get stuck you ask for help (yay, thanks), and after that you just do the best you can and put a preface that all errors are your own in the book. I could not tell you how many fiction books I've read recently where the author thanks so and so for their expertise in doctoring, horses, weaving, what have you, and then claims any errors are their own. It's a "get out of trouble free" method in fiction.