1788. Carta de Juan Bazo para su mujer María Gutiérrez.

Letter from Juan Bazo to his wife María Gutiérrez.

The author reprimands his wife for accusing him of not writing him and he insists she is the one who does not write.

In 1777 Juan Bazo and María Gutierrez got married and the problems between them were immediate. Juan Bazo´s erratic and sometimes violent behaviour soon ended the marriage. The husband left the house seven months after the wedding, leaving Maria pregnant from their only daughter. Twelve years later Juan Bazo claimed his daughter´s custody and his wife´s reclusion, whom he accused of indecent and licentious conduct. María answered her husband complaints by exposing the reality she had lived ever since they got married. As she declared in the processes initiated, Juan Bazo had deceived her since the moment they got married. He assured he had financial means to support the family, however, the hardship and inability to fulfil his promise was soon revealed. Therefore, the couple had lived on Antonia de Torres´s money, who was María Gutierrez´s mother. After he left the house, Maria had to work to support her daughter and herself since she did not receive any kind of help from Juan Bazo. In order to do so, she did embroidery work and she also worked in a leather factory in Chiclana. Besides, she gave her daughter an adequate education for a girl, instructing her in the Christian doctrine and in several labours. She insisted in these facts, which she verified with the testimonies from several neighbours, and she defended herself from the accusation of licentious conduct denying she was having a relationship with Juan Miguel Pérez. This particular accusation, which was also denied by the witnesses, was the result of the conspiracy orchestrated by Juan Bazo together with Juan Miguel Pérez and María´s solicitor, Luis Francisco Sotelo. So they tried to damage María Gutiérrez´s honour and attack her economic solvency. María also stated she had never refused to the family reunion: a few months before she had accepted the judge petition, which claimed the conjugal union. She assumed her husband´s care and she provided cloths for him to dress decently. However, fifteen days later he decided to leave again. Juan Bazo´s claims were dismissed due to the proofs and witnesses presented by María, and although it was granted a protective order for the daughter to enter a convent, we do not know if it was effectively done.

The letters written to María Gutierrez by Juan Bazo and Luis Sotelo were presented by her when she was answering her husband´s accusation. Regarding the lack of date in the letters, it gives us a glimpse of the author decision not to give many clues of his whereabouts.