Isabel Zendal Gómez

Isabel Zendal Gómez
Isabel Zendal Gómez
Born	1771 (age 254–255) invalid year, age > 130; Santa Mariña de Parada, Ordes, La Coruña
Died	Puebla de los Ángeles, Mexico
Other names	Isabel López Gandalia,; Ysabel Gómez Sandalla,; Isabel Sendalla,; Isabel Zendalla,; Isabel Cendalla y Gómez,; Isabel Cendala y Gómez,; Isabel Cendales,; Isabel Sendales,; Isabel Gandalla
Occupation	Nurse
Children	Benito
Parent(s)	Jacobo Zendal, María Gómez.

Isabel Zendal Gómez (Santa Mariña de Parada, Ordes, La Coruña, 1771 – Puebla de los Ángeles, Mexico) was a nurse and rector of the Charity Orphanage of La Coruña.

She took part in the Royal Philanthropic Vaccine Expedition of Francisco Xavier Balmis. During the 10 years of the expedition to bring the smallpox vaccine to the Spanish overseas territories, she cared for the 22 children from the Foundling House of La Coruña who traveled to America, aged between 3 and 9, and for the 26 who went to the Philippines.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has considered Isabel Zendal Gómez the first nurse in history on an international mission.^[1]

Biography

There are as many as 35 versions of her name, among them: 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.^[2] She was born in Ordes (La Coruña).

Her father, Jacobo Zendal, came from the parish of Santa Cruz de Montaos, and her mother, María Gómez, from the parish of Parada;^[1] both were poor farmers.

The couple had Bernarda, Isabel (1771), Juan (1774), María Antonia (1776), Joseph (1778, died at birth), Francisca Antonia (1779), Joseph and Cathalina (1782, twins, died in their first year) and Joseph (1784).^[3] In her childhood she was the only girl who attended private lessons with the parish priest of her village.^[4]

In 1778 her mother, María Gómez, died of smallpox.^[5]

On July 31, 1796, her son Benito was born, and Isabel raised him as a single mother. Isabel, at the age of 20, began working at the Charity Hospital of La Coruña, which had been founded by Teresa Herrera, first as an assistant and later as rector.^[6]

On March 24, 1800, she began her work as Rector of the Foundling Home, receiving a monthly salary of 50 reales and payment in kind of one pound per day of bread made from fine, first-sifting flour. From May 1801 she received half a pound of bread per day for her son and, from August, half a pound of meat per day.^[1]

The Royal Philanthropic Vaccine Expedition

On October 14, 1803, the decree incorporating Isabel Zendal Gómez into the expedition was issued:

"The King, agreeing with the proposal of Your Grace and of the Director of the expedition intended to spread the inoculation of the vaccine in the Indies, His Majesty permits the Rector of the Foundling House of that city to be incorporated into the same expedition in the capacity of Nurse, with the salary and allowance assigned to the Nurses, so that during the voyage she may look after the care and cleanliness of the Children who are to embark, and so that the reluctance experienced among some Parents to entrust their children to the care of those men, without the comfort of a Woman of probity, may cease. On this date, I send the corresponding notice to the Ministry of Finance so that the Rector may receive in that City the allowance of three thousand reales for her outfitting, and for the payment in the Indies of a salary of five hundred pesos fuertes per year, counted from the day she embarks, and half upon her return, which shall be charged to the Treasury; and I communicate this to Your Grace by Royal order for the information of the Charity Board, of which you are President, and for the notice of the interested party. May God guide Your Grace many years. San Lorenzo, October 14, 1803. Josef Ano Caballero. Don Ygnacio Carrillo y Niebla."

Original text:

‘Conformandose el Rey con la propuesta de Vm. y del Director de la expedicion destinada à propagar en Yndias la inoculacion de lavacuna, permite S.M. que la Rectora de la Casa de Expositos de esa ciudad sea comprehendida en la misma expedicion en clase de Enfermera, con el sueldo y aiuda de costa señalada a los Enfer-meros, para que cuide durante la navegacion de la asistencia y asio de los Niños que haian de embarcarse y cese la repug-nancia que se experimenta en algunos Padres de fi ar sus hijosal cuidado de aquellos, sin el alivio de una Muger de providad.Con esta fha, paso el aviso correspondiente al Ministerio de hacienda para que la Rectora reciva en esa Ciudad la aiu-da de costa de tres mil rs con destino à su havilitación y para el abono en Yndias del sueldo de quinientos pp annuales, conta-dos desde el dia que se embarque y la mitad à su regreso, quedeberà ser de cuenta del Erario; y à Vm. lo participo de Rl orden para la inteligencia de la Junta de caridad, de que es Presidente, y noticia de la Ynteresada. Dios gue à Vm. ms as. Sn Loren-zo y Octubre, 14 de 1803.Josef Ano CaballeroDn Ygnacio Carrillo y Niebla.‘

^[3]

On November 30, 1803, the expedition that would bring the smallpox vaccine to America set sail from the port of La Coruña with 37 people aboard the corvette María Pita, led by Francisco Javier Balmis and financed by King Charles IV. Isabel Zendal Gómez left her post at the hospice to take charge of the 22 children who carried the vaccine. There were 6 children from the Casa de Desamparados of Madrid, another 11 from the Charity Hospital of La Coruña and 5 from Santiago. The vaccine had to be carried by children who had not had smallpox, and it was passed from one to another every 9 or 10 days. Among the children were her son Benito Vélez, aged nine, Andrés Naya (8 years old), Antonio Veredia (7), Cándido (7), Clemente (6), Domingo Naya (6), Francisco Antonio (9), Francisco Florencio (5), Gerónimo María (7), Jacinto (6), José (3), Juan Antonio (5), Juan Francisco (9), José Jorge Nicolás de los Dolores (3), José Manuel María (6), Manuel María (3), Martín (3), Pascual Aniceto (3), Tomás Melitón (3), Vicente Ferrer (7), Vicente María Sale y Bellido (3) and one more child who died during the voyage.^[1]

The rules of the expedition clearly stated the care the children were to receive. None of them returned to Galicia.

"...they shall be well treated, maintained and educated until they have an occupation or position on which to live, according to their class, and those who had been taken on that condition shall be returned to their native towns."

— Rules governing matters of the Royal Expedition

Each child received a bundle containing: two pairs of shoes, six shirts, a hat, three pairs of trousers with their respective linen jackets and one more pair of woolen cloth trousers for the colder days. For personal hygiene: three neckerchiefs, another three handkerchiefs for the nose and a comb; and for eating: a glass, a plate and a complete set of cutlery.^[7]

The expedition reached Santa Cruz de Tenerife, where they spent a month vaccinating. The expedition left the Canary Islands on January 6, 1804, and arrived in Puerto Rico on February 9, 1804. On February 7, 1805, the expedition departed for the Philippines with a group of 26 children, among them Isabel's son, and they arrived in Manila on April 15, 1805. On August 14, 1809, the expedition returned to Acapulco. Isabel remained in Puebla with her son; they never returned to Spain.

"The poor Rector, who with the excessive work and the harshness of the different climates we have traveled through, entirely lost her health, tireless night and day, has poured out all the tenderness of the most sensitive Mother upon the 26 little angels in her care, just as she did from A Coruña and on all the voyages, and has fully attended them in their continual illnesses."

— Balmis, Macao (1806)

The expedition directly vaccinated some 250,000 people.^[8]

The Isabel Zendal Association was founded in A Coruña in October 2016 to research, disseminate and promote, at the local, national and international levels, the leading role of Galicia in the Royal Philanthropic Vaccine Expedition.^[9]

Recognition

In 1950 the World Health Organization (WHO) recognized Isabel Zendal Gómez as the first nurse in history on an international mission.^[1]
Since 1974 the government of Mexico has awarded the Cendala Gómez National Nursing Prize in her honor.^[1]
The Nursing School of San Martín de Texmelucan in Puebla bears her name.
The City Council of La Coruña gave her name, Isabel López Gandalia, to a street in the city. On December 5, 2017, the name was changed to Isabel Zendal Gómez.^[3]
On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the expedition, the Casa del Hombre in La Coruña dedicated a monument to her bearing the names of the 22 children of the expedition.
A sculpture by Acisclo Manzano, unveiled in La Coruña on November 30, 2003, commemorates the departure of the expedition from the port.
Isabel Zendal Gómez was named favorite daughter (hija predilecta) of the City Council of Ordes by unanimous vote of the local corporation, in a session held on November 30, 2016.^[10]
The Dominican-American novelist Julia Álvarez wrote a fictional account of the Balmis expedition from the perspective of Isabel Zendal Gómez in Saving the World (2006), ISBN 978-1-56512-510-0.
In 2016 the Foundation for the Development of Nursing (Fuden) presented the special Nursing in Development award for her being the first nurse in history on an international mission recognized by the WHO.
In 2016 the Nursing Union recognized the figure of Isabel Zendal as the first nurse in history on a humanitarian mission with the documentary "Isabel Zendal, la enfermera que cambió el rumbo".
In 2017 the Nursing Union in Galicia renamed the awards it presents at its Galician Scientific Meeting of Nursing and Physiotherapy as the Isabel Zendal Awards.
In 2018 she was included in La Tabla Periódica de las Científicas (The Periodic Table of Women Scientists) to commemorate in 2019 the International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements, marking the 150th anniversary of Mendeleev's publication.^[11]
Isabel Zendal Awards