Breast Milk in the Inquisitorial Testimony of Isabel de Baeza and La nodriza del infante

Abstract

Abstract:Isabel de Baeza in her 1573 Inquisitorial trial describes her faith in terms of the breast milk she drank as an infant. She constructs the practices associated with the crypto-Jewish faith as consumed in the very first days of life. In this period, breast milk was considered a purified form of blood. Women, through their milk, were the bearers of familial honor as well as both purity and impurity. Breast milk became a tool to control women, and women were keenly aware of the power that their bodies played in their own religious practice and that of their families. Similarly, the seventeenth-century Sephardic ballad La nodriza del infante warns against spoilt milk: "No le des al niño esa leche consumida." As the physical characteristics of milk were considered to transmit moral traits, the spoilt milk being referred to was both biological and moral. "Esa leche" was responsible for transmitting both virtues and vices to the child. In this paper, I explore the inquisition manuscripts of Isabel de Baeza alongside the ballad of La nodriza del infante to understand how Sephardic expressions of identity and faith are grounded in breast milk.