Barbara Stark-Nemon: The Emergence of a Heroine
How a fourteen-year-old embroiderer sprang into my mind with her own hero’s story of fleeing Portugal to escape the Spanish Inquisition.
I was on the third day of a bicycle trip from Lisbon, Portugal to the Alhambra in Granada, Spain, and had just huffed and puffed up a steep hill to a Celtic standing stone circle. As I caught my breath, the sun rose in exactly the correct alignment to produce a wondrous moment (yes, I’m enchanted by many things Celtic.) Even though my husband couldn’t be with me as he was recovering from a scary but successful cancer treatment, and even though other family circumstances threatened, I had decided to make this long-planned trip which would end in a visit to my son who was studying in Madrid.
The sun-filled uplifting moment in the standing stone circle after a tough cycle uphill seemed to affirm that this trip would be my own hero’s journey. Perhaps it shouldn’t have surprised me then, on the glide down that huge hill, that a fourteen-year-old embroiderer sprang into my mind with her own hero’s story of fleeing Portugal to escape the Spanish Inquisition. I told the girl in my head to get in line… I was already writing a 20th century historical novel based on my family in Germany, and I had a contemporary women’s fiction novel in the wings.
My girl did wait, and I traveled three times to Spain, Portugal, France and Germany to way find her journey. On that long-ago bicycle trip, the next stop after the standing stones was Estremoz, where the beautiful statue of Santa Isabel stands larger than life, commemorating that queen’s selfless acts of charity, risking her life by defying her husband in order to feed the poor. My character’s name became Isabela, and she too would have to risk her life to aid others.
As time and research travel went by, I also posited that there must have been a secret network of safe houses to conduct the thousands of Jews, crypto-Jews, Conversos (Jews who converted to Catholicism publicly but practiced Judaism secretly), and New Christians (converts who were nonetheless often accused of being heretics) to safety in cities such as Amsterdam, Hamburg, and Venice. So Isabela would have the aid of an underground network of hidden Jews, righteous Christians, and allies of her family.
I come from a family of refugees. Before I went to Portugal, I knew my great grandmother descended from a famous Portuguese Jewish family. A deep dive down the rabbit-hole of Ancestry.com revealed the ancestor who was born in Abrantes, Portugal in 1586 and died in Hamburg, Germany in 1655, giving me settings for the beginning and end of this story.
My own parents were refugees who escaped Germany before WWII. The necessity of being vigilant, of adapting to change, of overcoming despair and remaining resilient are baked into my DNA and these qualities inform Isabela’s coming-of-age tale. I knew she would also seek and recognize allies who show up in unexpected places—crossing religious, generational, and cultural boundaries.
When Isabela first came to me, I knew she was an embroiderer. I haven’t done much embroidery, but I do other fiber arts and I’ve always been interested in the history of women using textiles to communicate – think of the quilt maps created by escaping slaves during the American Civil War era. The combination of an embroidering teen on a clandestine escape route led me to have Isabela use her skills to embroider secret codes in service of the network… and I was off to the races with this story.
In all of my research journeys, I marveled at the blending of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim influences in the art, architecture, music, and foods I experienced. So I wrote Isabela’s refugee story and transformation in the face of religious persecution and challenge to her identity with some surprising threads that disrupt the easy classification of good and evil.
Though there are few early 17th century Iberian Peninsula coming-of-age refugee stories, there is a rich literary tradition of these tales from other times and places. My penchant for writing female characters who are strong and resilient when beset by conflict and challenge meant my female characters in this book would have those traits. Particularly in our global and local climate of unrest and the many challenges of refugees worldwide, I’m hoping readers will find meaning and inspiration as Isabela emerges from sheltered childhood into resilient womanhood in Isabela’s Way.
Barbara Stark-Nemon is the award-winning author of short stories, essays, the historical novel Even in Darkness, and the contemporary novel Hard Cider. Her historical novel Isabela’s Way will be published in 2026. Barbara lives, writes, swims, cycles, and does fiber art in Ann Arbor and Northport, MI. Learn more about her books and writing at www.barbarastarknemon.com and follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and Substack.
This essay was originally published on Paper Lantern Writers website on November 29, 2024.
Congratulations, Barbara!!!