Monday, February 15, 2010

Angela Bastallas es mi heroe!

First imagine a young single parent, with an infant, having to depend on an impetuous momma’s boy who turns his back on her, rather than acknowledge either the young woman or the child. Now when the child is first born, the young man signs the baby’s birth certificate and provides a home and financial support to the mother and their baby. Suddenly, the young man’s family finds out that he has fathered a child with a woman they consider both racially and socially inferior and he then turns his back on his child and the young mother. Outraged by the young man’s denials and failure to follow through on his promises, she takes what little money she has and hires and attorney to plead her case.
The image above resonates throughout the halls of child support courts every day. Yet, hers is unique. Why? This modern day narrative actually took place one hundred and eight six years ago. The young woman, a slave named Angela Bastallas, began a sexual relationship with her owner, Ildefonso Coronel, only after he promised her freedom in exchange. Soon after she become pregnant and bore him a daughter; a daughter for which he willingly signed what would be considered today as her birth certificate. He failed to mention to the mid-wife caring for Angela that the baby was born to a slave mother. He provided both financial support and for a home for the two, along with providing for a servant. However, when the affair became too humiliating for his well- too –do family, Coronel began denying Angela and their child. Furious, Angela defied not only social norms, but also attacked legally against the institution of slavery (and irresponsible fathers). She was able to hire her own attorney, again upsetting the status quo, and even pleaded her case before Simon Bolivar for his support publically.
I find this case interesting for many reasons. First, that she was able to win her case, and as a direct result, her freedom and support. Though Camilla Townsend does not directly tie this to any one reason, she does give a few important factors; Coronel signing the baptismal certificate for example. Angela was not only able to have one witness, but rather, she had five, all of whom the court found credible; this too was unheard of during the time, especially for a female slave. It too should be noted that because Coronel had signed the certificate, his daughter was automatically free and did not have to wait until her eighteenth birthday as the designated by law.
Secondly, Angela gained her rights because she used the law against itself, and therefore, against Coronel. Her argument that because she and Coronel had created a child together, they were joined in union and thereby took on the status of the other; whether that meant she was free or he was part slave. That argument was combined with the issue of enlightenment socially with regards to slavery and Coronel own beliefs, which had been the basis for the consummation of their sexual relationship, and therefore, the basis for her “earned” freedom.
I find it ironic that Angela was able to gain her freedom and support for her child nearly two hundred years ago against a male that even the Public Defender called a “miserable man without principles” . A slave, promised her freedom, was able to gain it, and today single mother like myself, have to still fight against irresponsible, insolent fathers, who can control the lives of both their children and the mother, legally; otherwise known as modern day “marital” slavery. This might also be one of the first modern day child support cases in the Americas. Angela Basllatas is my new hero!

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