By the beginning of the twentieth century, married women’s property rights in Latin America had evolved along two distinct paths. All South American countries still maintained their colonial marital regime, with either partial (Hispanic America) or full (Brazil) community property. In contrast, Mexico and the five Central American republics had established the separation of property marital regime—with each spouse owning and controlling his or her own property and its fruits—as either a formal option or as the default regime. Moreover, whereas South American countries maintained the colonial inheritance regime of restricted testamentary freedom with only a few important modifications, Mexico and Central America had adopted full testamentary freedom. The question thus arises: why did such divergent systems of family law emerge in Latin America?
We investigate the impact of liberalism—the dominant intellectual current during this period—on married women’s property rights in nineteenth-century Latin America. Following independence, new constitutions throughout the...
