Ana Rodrigues

Ana Rodrigues (died 1593), was a Portuguese Jewish woman who settled in Brazil, and became one of the first victims of the Portuguese Inquisition. Born in Covilha, Portugal, She emigrated from Portugal to Bahia in Brazil with her spouse in 1557.

Ana was married to a man named Heitor Antunes, who was also her second cousin. Together they had seven children. Both were known as New Christians: Jewish people who had been forced to convert to Christianity, under threat of exile.

When Ana herself was questioned, she tried to claim to be Christian, but was not believed. She confessed to performing some actions that were part of Judaism and Jewish tradition, but tried to claim she hadn't been aware they were associated with Judaism, insisting such actions had been taught to her by a godmother, long dead. These claims were most likely false.

In 1593 she was arrested, and deported to Lisbon, where she was judged guilty. She died in prison in 1593, awaiting sentencing. In 1604 she was posthumously sentenced to have her image burned in public as an effigy, and her bones were disinterred and burnt.

Ana's children - and grandchildren - suffered brutally under the Inquisition as well. Her daughter, Violante, was also arrested in 1593 and, like her mother, died in prison that same year. Officials twice arrested another daughter, Leonor, in 1592 and 1593. Another daughter, Beatriz, had for a long time assisted her mother in the synagogue; Beatriz was arrested in 1601. In 1603 she was "sentenced to an auto". In hopes of avoiding further persecution, many of Ana Rodrigues' descendants changed their surnames, particularly to those used by well-established Old Christians in the area, and sought intermarriage with the aforementioned Old Christians, in hopes of appearing more believably Christian themselves.