Society For Crypto Judaic Studies
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SCJS MEMBER HONORS COLOMBUS SCHOLAR Originally published in HaLapid, Spring, 2004 She was a remarkable scholar whose research documented the converso presence on Columbus’ first journey, yet she had been almost forgotten generations later. During more than six years of long distance negotiating, I initiated and carried through an international commemoration to Alice Bache Gould on the 50th anniversary of her death (born in Cambridge, MA, in 1868 and died in Simancas, Spain, in 1953). It is a pleasure to share my story with readers of HaLapid. Gould spent a lifetime completing extraordinary historical research. For seven years in Puerto Rico and 42 years in Spain, she made astounding discoveries as she recovered and rescued innumerable original manuscripts from destruction. Her Puerto Rico papers are in the Library of Congress, and most of her Spanish studies are held at the Academía de la Historia in Madrid. The highlight of her enormous effort was to find the names and biographies of all of the crew members of Columbus's first voyage. When Alice was two years old, her father, Dr. Benjamin A. Gould, founded and directed the Argentine National Observatory in Córdoba and took the Gould family to live there for about fifteen years with many visits home. Alice’s elementary school years included travel between the Boston area and Argentina. In Córdóba, she learned Hispanic history, culture and the Spanish language, which she would remember and use with complete fluency in her later research and writings. All of Gould’s secondary education would take place in the U.S. and England. She earned an undergraduate degree in mathematics at Bryn Mawr College and took graduate courses, mainly in math and physics, at Newnham College (Cambridge University), Radcliffe, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Chicago. During her postgraduate years, Gould taught undergraduate courses, most prominently at Newnham College, Carleton College (Northfield, Minnesota) and the University of Chicago. While in Chicago during World War I, she taught navigation to ensigns at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center. It is clear that Gould was not only able to interpret the Columbus manuscripts in their historical context, but also understand exactly what it meant for fifteenth-century sailors to navigate Atlantic waters. Although her interest in historical research may seem accidental, Gould found that she had a natural talent—and a mathematical and logical mind—that facilitated her reading and deciphering of information in manuscripts that other scholars had missed. In 1903, Gould traveled to Puerto Rico to recuperate from a serious bout with the flu. But her intellectual curiosity would not allow her to sit idly on a beach, however beautiful. She began to page through documents from Puerto Rico’s earliest colonial history; for several years, she would return to this task, and she became an expert on both the manuscripts and on the history. In 1911, on a cruise to Italy, Gould debarked in Gibraltar. She decided to travel to Seville for what she had intended to be a brief tour of the Archivo de las Indias. On this first visit to the archivo, she made significant historical discoveries. She never returned to her ship, spending most of the rest of her life in Spain. Gould was greatly admired by peers on both sides of the Atlantic and was awarded Spain’s highest honors for her work. Beginning in 1924, her Columbus findings were published bit by bit in the bulletin of the Real Academía de la Historia; in 1942 the Academía named her its only woman corresponding member. In the U.S., Columbus historian Samuel Eliot Morison published fragments of Gould’s research in his own books, and he and other scholars pushed for her work to be translated and published in English. According to numerous newspaper accounts at the time, Gould’s funeral in Madrid was attended with ceremony and tributes by Spain’s historians, intellectuals and dignitaries. Gould was a determined and resourceful woman, undaunted by inconvenience and discomfort. She did her work under extremely difficult and often dangerous circumstances, and throughout her life she was assaulted by poor health. Besides leaving the world the gift of her research, Gould was active in both charitable works and human rights causes. She was instrumental in establishing a nurses' training hospital in Puerto Rico, and she founded the first pre school in Simancas. She left behind huge donations of books and other educational materials, as well as scholarships--both in the U.S. and Spain--that continue to function today. To discover Gould is to know historical research combined with an abiding humanity. Her personal papers transport the reader to an authentic and wide ranging view of the Columbus era and also to a keenly-observant look at her own times. The story of how Gould achieved her goals in both research and philanthropy is as amazing as the information that she found in the old manuscripts. There are so many stories to tell about Miss Gould’s astounding life. I would like to offer one anecdote that illustrates her unwavering dedication to her work. In 1928, in the southern Spanish town of Moguer (very near Columbus’s departure town of Palos), Gould was outraged to learn that the local municipality had given its archives to the prison to be used as toilet paper. Dressed in a long skirt, long sleeves and a high collar, she went to the prison and boldly demanded that she be given access to the manuscripts. Locked in the prison each day, she sifted through the jumbled mess of documents, being let out for lunch and at the end of the day. Her actions earned Gould the respect of both guards and prisoners themselves, many of whom helped her in her search. She rescued hundreds of original manuscripts from certain destruction. Gould is my personal model of excellence in research and in sheer determination. Sadly, she has been forgotten over the years. Her Columbus era findings have never been published in English or in the U.S. Her book, Nueva lista documentada de los tripulantes de Colon en 1492, published in Madrid in Spanish in 1984, is difficult to obtain, and its information is inaccessible to the English reader. As Gould studied in minute detail the long neglected Spanish records, she made notes on Columbus's crew and on whatever other information that the files revealed. In her Nueva lista, for example, Gould confirms the Jewish presence on the voyages of discovery. She devotes twelve pages to Luis de Torres, Columbus's converso interpreter. Not only does Gould tell what she has found about de Torres in archives across Spain, but she also summarizes what has been written previously by historians. She sorts out much of the confusion on who sailed with Columbus and when. Those of Jewish blood whom Gould assigns to the first voyage are de Torres and Rodrigo Sánchez de Segovia, while she notes that Maese Bernal (a doctor), Marco (a surgeon) and Alfonso de la Calle were on board during the fourth voyage. Gould advises that, although direct evidence may be scarce, there must have been other Jewish and converso crew members. She challenges her readers to continue the search. Gould made invaluable discoveries concerning persons of Jewish heritage holding important positions in the Spanish Court, such as Luís de Santángel and Gabriel Sánchez. During SANTANGEL 98, an international conference that I organized in the Chicago area, I presented a tribute to Gould. It was she who, in Barcelona in 1916, recovered the original manuscript in which Santángel accepted the position of Comptroller of Aragon and affirmed that he had been born in Valencia. Before this irrefutable evidence, discovered by Gould, Santángel's birthplace was merely conjecture. My husband, Charles B. LeMieux, and I are educators, travelers, researchers and documentary filmmakers. For over 34 years we have been studying and filming the Columbus story across three continents. In 1997, we decided to visit Gould's tomb in Madrid to pay our respects for the guidance that her work had offered us for so many years. When we found the gravesite in a state of total disrepair, we determined to remedy the neglect. PROJECT GOULD 2003 was born. The project has sought to restore Gould's tomb and commemorate her life and work. I am delighted to report that my dream has given way to reality. Responding to my petitions, the Real Academía de la Historia completely restored the tomb. It was thrilling for me to add my own roses to the many bouquets offered to Gould by dignitaries and event participants during the re dedication ceremony at her gravesite last October 2. October 3 was a full day of tributes to Gould. At the International Institute in Spain, the day began with a reception in a beautiful room in which Charles and I had mounted an exhibit of 75 photos and documents. Many of these photos were ones that we had taken during our years of travel. From morning to late afternoon at the Institute, there was a series of lectures presented by speakers from the Americas and Spain. In the evening, the Real Academía offered a special celebration with lectures by members. The commemoration in Madrid was lovely, and its success inspires me to continue on to the next phase of the PROJECT. Charles and I will complete our film on Miss Gould, and I plan to publish a book on her life. Also, I hope to find a U.S. publisher for an English translation of the Nueva lista. I am excited about my research and work yet to be done, and I thank SCJS for this opportunity to write about my experiences and plans.
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