The Enlightened Patrolman

Early Law Enforcement in Mexico City

Nicole von Germeten

• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781496219466
• eBook ISBN: 9781496233295
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Early Modern History
• Index: History

When late eighteenth-century New Spanish viceregal administrators installed public lamps in the streets of central Mexico City, they illuminated the bodies of Indigenous, Afro-descended, and plebeian Spanish urbanites. The urban patrolmen, known as guarda faroleros, or "lantern guards, " maintained the streetlamps and attempted to clear the streets of plebeian sexuality, embodiment, and sociability, all while enforcing late colonial racial policies amid frequent violent resistance from the populace. In The Enlightened Patrolman Nicole von Germeten guides readers through Mexico City's efforts to envision and impose modern values as viewed through the lens of early law enforcement, an accelerated process of racialization of urban populations, and burgeoning ideas of modern masculinity. Germeten unfolds a tale of the losing struggle for elite control of the city streets. As surveillance increased and the populace resisted violently, a pause in the march toward modernity ensued. The Enlightened Patrolman presents an innovative study on the history of this very early law enforcement corps, providing new insight into the history of masculinity and race in Mexico, as well as the eighteenth-century origins of policing in the Americas.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Preface
• Introduction
• 1. Light
• 2. Men Walking the Beat
• 3. To Protect and Serve
• 4. Nightlife
• 5. Guards in Trouble
• 6. Guards under Attack
• 7. The Night Watchmen, the Military, and Insurgency
• Conclusion
• Afterword
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• About Nicole von Germeten
• Series List