Early Modern Maternities in the Iberian Atlantic

Emily Colbert Cairns is an Associate Professor of Spanish at Salve Regina University. She specializes in gender and conversos. She is the author of Esther in Early Modern Iberia and the Sephardic Diaspora: Queen of the Conversas and co-editor of Confined Women: The Walls of Female Space in Early Modern Spain. Nieves Romero-Díaz is Professor of Spanish on the Alumnae Foundation at Mount Holyoke College. Her research explores the intersection of politics and emotions in women’s lives and their writings. Among her many publications, it is worth highlighting Nueva nobleza, nueva novela, Warning to the Kings and Advice of Restoring Spain: A Bilingual Edition and her work on María de Ágreda’s correspondence.

"That is why a book like this is as timely as it is necessary—where women take the floor to speak for themselves, without intermediaries, about their experience of motherhood. Only in this way can we truly grasp the subject of study and place it within the Hispanic world based on preserved documentation: from the pressure experienced—analogous to that of the Countess of Chinchón, but regardless of social status—to become a mother; to the risks associated with childbirth, including miscarriage; and finally, to the path that must be navigated through breastfeeding and child-rearing." [Translated form Spanish] - Elisabeth Garcia Marrasé, Revista de Demografía Histórica – Journal of Iberoamerican Population Studies , XLI, I, 2024

• Acknowledgements List of Illustrations Introduction - Emily Colbert Cairns and Nieves Romero-Díaz Defining Maternity 1. Debra Blumenthal, “‘Services for which I expect to be compensated:’ Mothering as a Salaried Labor of Love in the Late Medieval Crown of Aragon” 2. Grace E. Coolidge, “Noble Maternity in Castile, 1400–1650” 3. Mercedes Llorente, “Maternity in the Portraits of Spanish Habsburg Queens: Mariana of Habsburg” 4. Rocío Quispe-Agnoli, “The Stains of the Mother: Indian Mothers and Mestizo Children in Early Colonial Peru” Becoming Pregnant and Giving Birth 5. Carolina Alarcón, “‘Urinating on Lettuce and Throwing Your Hands Up:’ Infertility in Early Modern Spain” 6. Vanda Anastácio, “Motherhood and Gender: When the Queen has only Daughters. The Case of Victoria de Bourbon (1718–81)” 7. Emily Kuffner, “‘Para retener la criatura:’ Miscarriage in Early Modern Spain” 8. Montserrat Pérez Toribio, “Maternal Bodies and Fertile Letters: The Politics of Motherhood Networking in Estefania de Requesens’ Correspondence” Daily Living Motherhood 9. Catherine Hall-van den Elsen, “Motherhood and the Early Modern Woman Artist” 10. Yolopattli Hernández Torres, “Casa de Niños Expósitos: The Substitute Mother in Colonial Mexico” 11. Mariela Fargas Peñarrocha, “Cruel or Prudent Mothers? Troubled Relationships, Disobedient Daughters, and Social Risk (Eighteenth-century Barcelona)” Afterwords - Emilie Bergmann Index List of Contributors