On this Mother’s Day, I’d like to celebrate the life of a forgotten mother: Ana Maria India Ladina.
I discovered Ana Maria India Ladina while reading the informacion matrimonial of a distant family member. “India ladina” is her casta, and not her surname. It basically meant that she was indoctrinated in the Spanish and Christian ways. For lack of a surname, it’s how I refer to her.
On 27 Jan 1669, in San Luis Potosi, Ana Maria responded to the marriage banns of Marcos Villareal and Teresa de Sotomayor. She looked to be 70 years-old, and she claimed that there was an impediment to the marriage, because the groom had had a relationship with her daughter, Juana Antonia Mestiza, who was her illegitimate daughter with Spaniard Juan de Saldaña, who was the brother of Diego Mateos, who was father of the bride. Therefore, her daughter was 1st-cousin of the bride, creating an impediment of “2º grado de afinidad por copula ilicita.”
Marcos Villareal responded that, yes, Juan de Saldaña and Ana Maria India Ladina did have a relationship, before he married Maria de Castañeda, which produced 3 Mestiza daughters, all of whom Juan de Saldaña later adopted and raised with his legitimate children. If Juana Antonia Mestiza was his daughter, then he would have adopted and raised her, too. But she was born after their relationship ended, so she can’t be his daughter. Therefore, there is no impediment.
He then presented 3 witnesses to support his case: the first 2 said that they had had relationships with Ana Maria India Ladina, who also accused them of being the father of Juana Antonia Mestiza, demanding child support, and the 3rd confirmed the testimony of the first 2. They all described Ana Maria India Ladina as “una muger ramera y mundana”: a “street walker,” and “worldly.” The judge found no family link between her daughter and the bride, and the marriage proceeded.
