In 1821, Peru gained independence from the Spanish colonial empire. Despite the new legal codes issued in the young republic, the country was still shaped by a historically evolved legal pluralism. The legal anthropologist and historian Armando Guevara Gil takes a micro-historical approach to modern Peruvian legal history. He examines the phenomenon of runaway nuns in the early 19th century – cases on the intersection between secular and church law. In the interview, he comments on the state of Peruvian legal-historical research and argues in favour of paying attention to the microcosm of the individuals’ perceptions and agency.