HE SAID, SHE SAID

 

There are many stories of pregnancies outside of marriage in olden Guam, but this court case from 1929 is interesting to me because it involved a Catholic man and a Baptist woman.

I usually don't include the last names of people in embarrassing stories, in order to spare their descendants (some are old enough to have known the individuals involved) further embarrassment. With this story, even their first names are so uncommon that they could be identified, so I'll change their first names, too.

Let's call her Rosa. Rosa went to court in 1929 to lodge a complaint against Juan for making her pregnant. Both Juan and Rosa were single. Rosa was Baptist, and Juan was Catholic. Rosa claimed that she consented to have intimate relations with Juan four times, on the sole basis that Juan promised to marry Rosa very soon.

Rosa became pregnant, and Juan dragged his feet about marrying Rosa. 

Soon, Rosa's pregnancy couldn't be hidden. Rosa's female cousins at school told their mom, Rosa's auntie. The auntie told Rosa's mother. Rosa admitted to her mother that she was pregnant and that Juan was the father. Rosa's mom called Juan's mom.

Juan's mother agreed that Juan should marry Rosa, and asked Rosa's mother if she, Rosa's mother, a staunch Baptist, would agree to have Juan and Rosa marry before a Catholic priest.

Rosa's mother, the staunch Baptist, said "yes." Getting Rosa married and sparing everyone the shame was more important than where the marriage took place.

But Juan never went through with the wedding. And that is why Rosa went to court.

Juan was charged with seduction on the pretense of marriage, and Juan plead not guilty.

Rosa's problem in this court case was a lack of witnesses who could say they saw Juan and Rosa in carnal relations. Juan denied having ever touched Rosa.

Furthermore, witnesses were called in to testify that Rosa had had prior boyfriends, including a Filipino working for the Navy who seemed to be in high demand among the single ladies of Guam, since female rivals for this Filipino man's attention had quarrels with Rosa over him.

Rosa, according to some witnesses, was known for being a flirt with some of the young men, Baptist and Catholic. All of this was to insinuate that there could be more than one candidate for who impregnated Rosa.

In the end, the court acquitted Juan. There just wasn't enough evidence to convict him.

It was a matter of "he said, she said." There were no paternity tests, yet, to scientifically prove who the father was.

To this day, however, the family that Rosa eventually raised with a husband consider Rosa's first born the child of Juan, even though the child never took Juan's last name.