New Directions in Hispanic Jewish Studies: Early Modern Jewish and Conversa Women

ABSTRACT Increasing recognition of the integral role that religious and ethnic “others”—Jews and Muslims—played in the development of Iberian culture has become more integrated into the study of Spanish Empire, with an eye toward the converso experience in the colonial world as well. A much less developed line of inquiry relates to the experiences of those at the margins of sixteenth-century society, especially Jewish and conversa women, who were navigating unprecedented circumstances as refugees and New Christians. The disintegration of early modern women’s personal, familial, and communal foundations often left them in the most vulnerable positions; widows, who were not protected by the confines of marriage, experienced poverty and Inquisitorial accusations more often than others. Both Jewish and Spanish legal records feature a disproportionate number of cases related to the status of widows in a tumultuous society; some of the most compelling sources are Inquisition records that document the accounts of judaizing widows on trial. These new directions at the intersection of Jewish and Hispanic studies start broader conversations about Spanish Empire that include marginalized voices and exclude notions of imperial homogeneity.