Sylvia Sellers-Garcia, "The Woman on the Windowsill: A Tale of Mystery in Several Parts" (Yale UP, 2020)
On the morning of July 1, 1800, a surveyor and mapmaker named Cayetano D\xedaz opened the window of his study in Guatemala City to find a horrific sight: a pair of severed breasts. Offering a meticulously researched and evocative account of the quest to find the perpetrator and understand the motives behind such a brutal act, this volume pinpoints the sensational crime as a watershed moment in Guatemalan history that radically changed the nature of justice and the established social order.\nIn\xa0The Woman on the Windowsill: A Tale of Mystery in Several Parts\xa0(Yale UP, 2020),\xa0Sylvia Sellers-Garc\xeda reveals how this bizarre and macabre event spurred an increased attention to crime that resulted in more forceful policing and reflected important policy decisions not only in Guatemala but across Latin America. This fascinating book is both an engaging criminal case study and a broader consideration of the forces shaping Guatemala City at the brink of the modern era.\nElspeth Currie\xa0is a PhD student in the Department of History at Boston College where she studies women\u2019s intellectual history in early modern Europe.\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices\nSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/law