For historian Bianca Premo, the archives of Latin America, especially Peru, are her “labs.” She searches old papers for traces of people who are absent or largely ignored in grand stories of the past. Her expertise is in two main areas: Spanish colonial law and the history of childhood.
Uncovering the stories of historically marginalized people – the enslaved, Indigenous subjects and women, as well as children – enriches or challenges our inherited ideas about big topics like law and politics. Her 2017 award-winning book, The Enlightenment on Trial: Ordinary Litigants and Colonialism in the Spanish Empire, for example, shows how colonial litigants, who often could not read or write, shaped modern notions of rights and law by suing superiors in court. Yale legal historian Lauren Benton said the book “reveals truths we didn't know and makes them seem obvious." Rather than searching for hidden stories, Premo’s latest book now tackles a story its main character might wish remained in the dark.
It’s a “tricky and perilous subject,” she says: the story of the youngest confirmed mother in history, who gave birth in 1939 at the age of 5 in Peru. Premo received a 2021 John S. Guggenheim award for this study. The girl survived into old age surrounded by a bevy of exploitative “supporters,” but when she became an adult, she chose to live off the grid. Nonetheless, the internet has made her a viral sensation.
Premo directly confronts the ethical bind of writing about this case. While it might seem like justice to permit this woman to fade from history, Premo believes professional historians are obligated to use their expertise to ensure stories that achieve notoriety are told ethically.
Bianca Premo
Interim chair and professor of history, Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs, 2021 John Simon Guggenheim Fellow
"At the moment, historians are thinking a lot about whether or not it is possible to have a right to be forgotten. We are grappling with issues of memory and justice, and the difficult question of who owns the past.”