Vindication of the first Spanish women in the New World

Abstract

During the first two centuries of the Spanish colonization of the Americas, thousands of Spanish women embarked from the Peninsula to the New World. The names of these travelers have been ignored due to
the negligence of royal officials and of careless chroniclers. Even though these women were the men’s comrades, allies and companions in the Atlantic voyage, in the battles against the Indians and in the calamities
they suffered. Thanks to the reports and chronicles of other less covetous authors, I have been able to reconstruct the vicissitudes of these women. Some were viceroys and governors, some were mystics and teachers, political enemies, small businesswomen, seamstresses, maids and prostitutes. And when the men died or were badly wounded, the women were forced to act
as impromptu captains and nurses.
This article reveals not only that in America the Spaniard women were more independent than the peninsular women, receiving special protection in their family life, but also that many families embarked as early as the second Colombian trip (1493) to La Española. The number of women travelers kept growing in the subsequent expeditions to Mexico, the Amazons, Peru, Chile, La Plata River and even in the imprudent and poorly equipped expedition that Isabel Barreto commanded to the Solomon Islands.