Maternal Practice and the Chuetas of Mallorca: The Inquisitorial Trials of Pedro Onofre Cortés

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The article is a significant study of the crucial role of Mallorcan Chueta mothers in maintaining an extraordinarily long tradition of Jewish faith and resistance to Christian conversion through domestic observance and through the choice of wetnurses. 

Minor stylistic corrections are needed for clarity, a few significant errors in translation, and two corrections in references:

note 9 is incorrect: Bergmann in "Milking the Poor," does not "explore ... how Muslim wetnurses were considered closer to nature." Find the correct source and citation.

line 186--A note should be added to the reference to the romance of "La nodriza del infante." One source (which includes references to other studies):

Bergmann, Emilie. “Popular Balladry and the Terrible Wet Nurse: “La nodriza del rey.” Medieval and Renaissance Lactations: Images, Rhetorics, Practices. Ed. Jutta Gisela Sperling. Burlington VT and Farnham, UK: Ashgate, 2013. 115-128.

A reference is needed for the claim that images of the Madonna lactans were ubiquitous throughout medieval and early modern Spain.

Translation:

"La toca de la Virgen" should be translated as "The Virgin's veil / mantle," not "touch"

line 76--include the Spanish term for "Great Complicities"

line 168--clarify the translation: "had taken his heart as a relic, which is barbarous"

line 171--replace "miscegenated" with another term: "mixed" or "merged"--or include a phrase highlighting the connotation of racial mixing despite prohibitions. 

line 209--line 16 of the romance should be translated as "The Virgin of Good Event"

line 235--is it possible to explain what was meant by "confess with a stone?"

line 251 translated in 257-58--and, in any case [?], they directed them above all not to confess these sins, adding blasphemies, for these sins against the faith there would be no confession.

line 287--Although the Virgin's milk could confer "something immutable," ordinary baptism could be undone by employing a Jewish wetnurse [?]

Include the date(s) for the trial of Constanza de Perpinan.

lines 366-68--awkward translation. perhaps "she was a woman who observed the aforementioned Law of Moses, as she had been taught"

Other minor stylistic corrections and typos:

line 93 add open bracket: should read:   [oppressed

end of line 93   Chuetas'

line 134--omit comma

note 5  correct title:  "Mother's Breast is Best"

line 179--causing rather than allowing?

line 215--translation doesn't match the Spanish reference to silence

line 238--living and observing daily practices or observances

line 172--Thursdays

lines 330-331--Parents may have had high-minded theories, but they had a real baby who needed milk.

lines 340-41--In another case,

line 342--Other women, like the Christian mother Gracia Ruiz,

line 348--omit "incredibly" from your vocabulary. Is it unbelievable (and therefore meaningless in this context) or is it important? Replace with a term like crucial or central

line 359--fact; for this author

line 378--omit the dash. Should read:    women maintained'

line 396-- and if we take away

line 408--the choice that women had in their lives and the

line 413--confusing: conversa women were deceitful?

line 421--insert commas:   abstinence, especially fasting,

line 431--omit "that"

line 453--losing

line 455-- having given birth

line 463--either: "These trial records depict" or "Reading these trial records reveals"

line 468--not only int

line 470--seen, there are

Author Response

I have made all the corrections made by the reviewer. I have made the stylistic corrections that were listed for clarity, addressed the translation queries, and also corrected the two citations referenced. I thank this reviewer for giving me this feedback to make the paper stronger. 

Reviewer 2 Report

I appreciate this engagement with the inquisitorial history of the Chuetas. The Inquisition(s) and their relation to socio-cultural religiosity is always ripe for further exploration and argumentation, and bringing maternal practice and breastmilk conceptualizations into the mix is very welcome and important.

However, the article as it stands reflects several elements requiring revision.

Argument? On the most essential level, the argument/purpose of the article is not clear. Neither the abstract nor the opening section nor the conclusion make clear "what has been argued" or "what has been demonstrated." It is recommended that the author stand back from the paper and ask themselves "What am I trying to say here? What advance in the scholarship am I hoping this article makes?" Then, whatever answer is generated by this exercise, the article needs to be revised to more directly and repeatedly highlight this distinctive contribution.

Sources? The primary source interactions and translations are all excellent and wonderful inclusions. However, engagement with secondary literature is lacking. This relates to the point about "Argument" above, also. This piece needs to contextualize itself among other, broader scholarship on the Chuetas, the Spanish Inquisitions, Jewish conversos, and maternal/breastmilk studies. This broader scholarly contextualization should help the author make their own argument/contribution more clear.

Style/Editing - While the writing was relatively clear throughout, more editing is needed for English style/grammar. Here's a brief listing of issues from just the first two pages:

ln. 27 - "a" fellow practioner

ln. 29 "breast milk" (has a space here, not in the rest of the article)

ln. 36 mentions a "citation" but hasn't actually cited/quoted anything yet.

ln. 48 "was accused of being" instead of just "was"

ln. 71 need to say specifically where the mass baptisms took place in 1391

ln. 84 needs a semi-colon between "faith" and "we"

Style/Editing - While the writing was relatively clear throughout, more editing is needed for English style/grammar. Here's a brief listing of issues from just the first two pages:

ln. 27 - "a" fellow practioner

ln. 29 "breast milk" (has a space here, not in the rest of the article)

ln. 36 mentions a "citation" but hasn't actually cited/quoted anything yet.

ln. 48 "was accused of being" instead of just "was"

ln. 71 need to say specifically where the mass baptisms took place in 1391

ln. 84 needs a semi-colon between "faith" and "we"

Author Response

I have addressed the different comments by the reviewer in terms of argument, sources and style. I have taken the reader's advice and asked myself "what has been argued and demonstrated." To these ends, I have furthered and reinforced throughout the text the topic of the maternal and how it was informed by a hybrid religious context, taking current scholarship and understanding of crypto-Judaism as a maternally transmitted religion in a new direction. I have reinforced the following idea throughout the paper.  

"This article explores how the conversos known as the Chuetas of Mallorca understood their religiosity and difference as seen through the lens of hybridity, breastmilk, and maternal care. While mothers preserved religious difference, Chuetas lived in a world replete with Catholic paintings and sculptures of the virgin lactans. There is an obvious tension here, this model woman and mother couldn’t help but inform their own understanding of motherhood. I explore how the Chuetas construct their religious identity through the bodies of women and breastmilk and this first food is related to the tasks that they performed surrounding food preparation through which they upheld secret Jewish practice. I argue that the belief that breastmilk could transmit (im)purity was inherited from a Christian context in which the Chuetas lived and worshipped reflecting that religious practices could not be differentiated into their constituent parts. "

Regarding Sources, I have included new secondary sources and considered them in relation to the argument that I have put forth. I have increased the scope of my argument through dialogue with scholars on Chuetas (Antonio Cortijo Ocaña, Selke, Braunstein, Cortes, Fortaleza, Picazo y Muntaner) the Inquisition (Silverblatt and Greenleaf), and conversos (Martínez, Melammed, Bodian, Leibman) in general in addition to scholars of breastfeeding practices (Miles, Bergmann, Charo-Moreno, Alexandre-Bidon, Fildes,Martínez, Villaseñor Black).  I do believe that this contextualization has made my argument stronger, I have also considered scope for further research through the use of affect theory (Tompkins and Haussman). 

In terms of editing, I have edited the style throughout and taking into specific considerations the comments by both reviewers and editors, paying special attention to the translations and reworking them when necessary. 

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

The article has been much improved! It has the markings of being a significant contribution to scholarship related to this subject matter. However, at the level of composition and sourcing, things still need some improvement. See specific notes below:

fn. 1 - title is cited work is misspelled

ln. 52 - three scholars are mentioned, but there is not footnote encompassing their relevant works; this should be added

ln. 103 - same comment as ln. 52

fn 2 and fn 5 - these appear to be very similar footnotes; probably need to delete one

lns. 217-218 - not clear why this is a parenthetical citation; change to a note

page 7 - "drinking milk at the virgin's allows" -- this sentence is missing a word after "virgin's"

fn. 12 - tenets, not tenants

ln. 393 - need a semi-colon here, not a comma

lns. 447-448 - delete the word "scholar," include footnote to relevant article/book that you are referring to

ln. 491 - include citation/note for Tomkins' work

The article has been much improved! It has the markings of being a significant contribution to scholarship related to this subject matter. However, at the level of composition and sourcing, things still need some improvement. See specific notes below:

fn. 1 - title is cited work is misspelled

ln. 52 - three scholars are mentioned, but there is not footnote encompassing their relevant works; this should be added

ln. 103 - same comment as ln. 52

fn 2 and fn 5 - these appear to be very similar footnotes; probably need to delete one

lns. 217-218 - not clear why this is a parenthetical citation; change to a note

page 7 - "drinking milk at the virgin's allows" -- this sentence is missing a word after "virgin's"

fn. 12 - tenets, not tenants

ln. 393 - need a semi-colon here, not a comma

lns. 447-448 - delete the word "scholar," include footnote to relevant article/book that you are referring to

ln. 491 - include citation/note for Tomkins' work

Author Response

I have responded to all of the specific notes listed below to address sourcing and composition. In addition I edited the notes, the work cited and other formatting inconsistencies in word choice.