documentaries

It must not have been easy to recover the story of this woman, especially when her name and that of her son appear mentioned in different ways.

Names are relatively important, because 98% of the women were illiterate, so they depended on the notary and how the words were pronounced. Had there been a lisp, they would say Sendal; not because they didn’t want to keep the original surname but because that’s how they said it. I use Zendal because that’s what appears in the oldest documents. I’m not Isabel Zendal’s father, I can be her godfather, because I put her legitimate surnames, I look for where she was born and who her family is. Before me there were people who talked about it, but unfortunately for them they did not have the archives in the same city where they lived. I had these documentary treasures ten minutes from my house.

What was known before his story started to become popular?

That she had been the expedition’s nurse and director of the Casa de Expósitos, it was also known that she had a son. Knowing what historians of the time were like, it stands to reason that they didn’t imagine that a woman like her could be part of a royal expedition. The intuition of some was to say that she was a widow, others said that the child had been adopted, to solve the moral cover, but if you are lucky enough to work with the royal archives and you discover that a certain Benito, son, is baptized in San Nicolás by Isabel Cendal Gómez, originally from Santa Mariña de Parada and who claims to be her natural son, there is no going back and if it is clearly stated that the father’s name cannot be given, it is clear that it was a extramarital child.

Before the expedition, what did Isabel Zendal do?

She was director of the Casa de Expósitos, which one might think is a very important post, but she had a pound of bread a day as a supplement. The chaplain of the Hospital de la Caridad earned 150 reais and Isabel 50. I thought that the salary was still low, but that her position gave her a good social position, but I saw that no, that she was the only one dedicated exclusively to foundlings .

And why did you start investigating his life?

Of the coincidences of life. Years ago I went to do a report on the house-cradle of A Coruña, which was like the natural continuation of the foundling houses, and the director told me that if I wanted to do something for the foundlings, I had to tell the best what those creatures had done, which was to bring the first vaccine that existed in the history of Medicine from A Coruña to America. I didn’t know what he was talking about. I began to inform myself and the more I knew, the more I was amazed. The ship was called María Pita, the mission lasted nine years and was the one that convinced people that getting vaccinated was the best prevention, the crew was from here, the municipal doctor is the one who stays tuned to keep the chain of vaccination during the trip in case fresh pus is needed for vaccination.

Did you find a lot of information?

In this there is also a factor of luck, because the oldest book that is preserved from Santa Mariña de Parada, where she was born, begins in 1773 and the next one is from 1825 if it hadn’t been preserved, I would have worked with the one from 1825 but I could no longer know what relationship the Cendals had with Isabel —because she was born in 1773—.

She was important, but so were the foundlings, who were the ones who kept the vaccine alive…

It remains to be assumed that, without children, this expedition would not have been possible, because it’s not that they carried the vaccine, it’s that they were live and active vaccines. They thought about doing it with cows, but the logistics were impossible, because this shipment was constantly on the move. It takes Balmis fifteen days from Madrid to A Coruña with the children, if he had come with the cows now he would still be in Pedrafita. Of the 21 who leave, four are from Madrid, five from the foundling house in Santiago and the others from A Coruña. Including Isabel’s son. There is a report from Balmis at the end of the campaign where he thanks the nurses for their health work but not the childcare, and later, Isabel, for the childcare but does not mention the vaccination work. It is clear that the only expert hand in dealing with children was Isabel’s, moreover, she was the only one who, from mother to mother, could convince structured families that their children would be in the best hands.

Were they all orphans?

It’s not the same foundling as an orphan. You can be an orphan, but have possessions and someone who takes care of them. The foundlings are abandoned in hiding.

And why did they bring children?

Because adults, let’s say prisoners or people who were in the military, had already been through it and didn’t know it or could lie to improve their situation.

Is it possible to recover the memory of those children?

You have to go for her. It’s up to them to turn these children into heroes with first names, last names and a story. We know some things, we know the day they went into the lathe and how they did it, where they were raised. In Mexico it is known that they were hosted in the poorhouse, but Balmis was angry, because the king had promised them that they would be with the best families in the country and in recent years they have been adopted by Mexican families and there are no traces . Except for one, the one who becomes a professor.

Has anyone returned to A Coruña?

It didn’t make sense for them to do this because they had no one here. We know who her mother was about the professor because she was with him before leaving for the expedition. She thought she would have a better future in America than here and she was right. It is easier to keep the memory of someone who became a professor than of someone who was a shoemaker, and certainly knew how to give more importance to what he did and transfer that memory to his heirs.