Isabel Zendal Gomez

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Memorial to Isabel Zendal and the children of the vaccination expedition in La Coruña, Spain
Memorial to Isabel Zendal and the children of the vaccination expedition in La Coruña, Spain

Isabel Zendal Gómez (* approx. 1771 in Santa Mariña de Parada, Ordes, La Coruña , Spain ; † Puebla de los Ángeles , Mexico ) was a nurse and principal of the orphanage at the Hospital de Caridad in La Coruña . From 1803 she was the only woman to take part in the Royal Philanthropic Vaccination Expedition ( Real Expedición Filantrópica de la Vacuna ) by Francisco Xavier Balmis . The aim of the expedition was to bring the smallpox vaccine , which had recently been developed in England, to the Spanish colonies and to initiate vaccination campaigns there. Isabel Zendal Gómez was responsible for looking after the children who were taken on the expedition as carriers of the live vaccine .

She was recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1950 as the first nurse in history on an international mission. Since 1978 the Mexican government has awarded the "Premio Enfermera Isabel Cendala y Gómez" annually. A nursing school in Puebla bears her name.

biography

Santa Mariña de Parada Church, Ordes, A Coruña, Spain
Santa Mariña de Parada Church, Ordes, A Coruña, Spain

Isabel Zendal Gómez was born in 1771 or 1772 in Santa Mariña de Parada, Ordes, La Coruña in the Galician north-west of Spain. There are numerous versions of her name: Isabel López Gandalia, Isabel Sendalla, Isabel Zendalla, Ysabel Gómez Sandalla, Isabel Cendalla y Gómez, Isabel Cendales, Isabel Gandalla, Isabel Sendales and Isabel Cendala y Gómez. She was the second of nine children of the married couple Jacobo Zendal from the parish of Santa Cruz de Montaos and Ignacia Gómez from the parish of Parada; both were poor farmers. Her mother died in 1788, possibly of smallpox, and her father died in 1800. In 1796, their son Benito was born. Isabel began to work at the Hospital de Caridad in La Coruña at the age of 20 and from March 1800 she headed the orphanage there (Casa de Expósitos) as principal.

Royal Philanthropic Vaccination Expedition

Route of the Real Expedición Filantrópica de la Vacuna
Route of the Real Expedición Filantrópica de la Vacuna

Isabel Zendal Gómez was admitted to the royal philanthropic vaccination expedition financed by King Charles IV of Spain by decree of October 14, 1803 . In the course of this, she traveled from the end of November 1803 on the corvette María Pita first to Tenerife , from there in 1804 to Puerto Rico , Caracas , Cuba and Mexico , from where she reached the Philippines in April 1805 .

"The poor rector, who has completely lost her health due to the excessive work and the severity of the different climates through which we have traveled, tirelessly poured out all the tenderness of the most sensitive mother day and night on the 26 little angels in her care, just as she did from A Coruña and on all her travels, and she stood by her completely with her constant illnesses. "

- Balmis (Macau, 1806)

In August 1809 Isabel Zendal Gómez returned with the expedition to Acapulco and subsequently stayed with her son in Mexico without returning to Spain. She lived most recently in Puebla, followed by a last known document from 1811 indicates in which reference is made to them: a pension claim for her son, to which he was one of the children claim that the smallpox vaccine in their bodies after Latin America brought had.

It was not until two centuries later that Isabel Zendal Gómez became known to a wider public again in Spain as a result of journalistic and scientific research and was mentioned in the media in the course of reporting on the Covid 19 pandemic in 2020.

gallery

  • Memorial to the Royal Philanthropic Vaccination Expedition in La Coruña

  • Memorial plaque for the participants of the vaccination expedition

  • Memorial plaque for Isabel Zendal

  • Memorial plaque for one of the children: Benito, the son of Isabel Zendal

Fiction

  • Julia Álvarez: Saving the World . Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2006, ISBN 978-1-56512-510-0 .
  • Almudena de Arteaga: Ángeles custodios (Guardian Angel) . Anaya infantil y juvenil, 2010, ISBN 978-84-698-3355-1 .
  • Javier Moro: A flor de piel . Grupo Planeta Spain, 2015, ISBN 978-84-322-2498-0 .
  • María Solar: Los niños de la viruela (The Smallpox Children) . 2017, ISBN 978-84-698-3355-1 .
  • El primo Ramón: Nuevo Mundo. Isabel Zendal en la Expedición de la Vacuna (New World. Isabel Zendal on a vaccination expedition) . 2018, ISBN 978-84-949549-1-7 .
  • Feature film "22 Ángeles" (22 angels), 2016. Directed by Miguel Bardem. Luis Ivar's music. Production of Sunrise PC for TVE.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Isabel Zendal. In: A Coruña das Mulleres. December 13, 2019, accessed May 22, 2020 (gl-ES).
  2. ^ Consejo de Salubridad General. Retrieved May 22, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Escuela de Enfermeria Isabel Cendala y Gomez | Sistema Educativo Técnico Profesional en Enfermeria. Retrieved May 22, 2020 (mexican Spanish).
  4. ^ Antonio López Mariño, Asociación Isabel Zendal: Isabel Zendal Gómez en los archivos de Galicia . Ed .: Parlamento de Galicia. 2018, ISBN 978-84-7836-120-5 (Spanish, parlamentodegalicia.es [PDF; accessed May 22, 2020]).
  5. ↑ https://www.elespanol.com/mujer/mujeres-historia/20200318/isabel-zendal-enfermera-protegio-ayudaron-erradicar-viruela/475454147_0.html
  6. ↑ Isabel Zendal, la enfermera que protegió a los 22 niños que ayudaron a erradicar la viruela. March 18, 2020, accessed May 23, 2020 (European Spanish).
personal data
SURNAME Zendal Gómez, Isabel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish nurse, first woman on an international vaccination expedition, principal of an orphanage
DATE OF BIRTH around 1771
PLACE OF BIRTH Santa Mariña de Parada, Ordes, La Coruña , Spain
DATE OF DEATH 19th century
Place of death Puebla de los Ángeles , Mexico