Crypto-Judaism was documented chiefly in Spanish-held colonial territories in northern
Mexico. Numerous conversos joined Spanish and Portuguese expeditions, believing there was an economic opportunity in the new lands, and that they would have more freedom at a distance far from Iberia. Different situations developed in the early colonial period of Mexico, the frontier province of
Nuevo León, the later northern frontier provinces, and the colonial experience of the
Mexican Inquisition. The crypto-Jewish traditions have complex histories and are typically embedded in an amalgam of syncretic Roman Catholic and Judaic traditions. In many ways resurgent Judaic practices mirrored indigenous peoples' maintaining their traditions practiced loosely under a Roman Catholic veil. In addition, Catholicism was syncretic, absorbing other traditions and creating a new creole religion. The traditional
Festival of Santa Esterica was preserved among the Conversos who migrated to the New World and is still practiced today among their descendants.
Early Mexico – 16th century Some of the Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain went to Portugal, but in 1497 that country effectively converted all remaining Jewish children, making them wards of the state unless the parents also converted. Therefore, many of the early crypto-Jewish migrants to Mexico in the early colonial days were technically first to second-generation Portuguese with Spanish roots before that. The number of such Portuguese migrants was significant enough that Spanish colonists began to use "Portuguese" as a synonym for "Jewish" for their settlers.
Immigration to Mexico offered lucrative trade possibilities in a well-populated colony with nascent Spanish culture. Some migrants believed that this region would be more tolerant since the lands were overwhelmingly populated by non-Christian indigenous peoples and it was far removed from the metropole. Colonial officials believed that many crypto-Jews were going to Mexico during the 16th century and complained in written documents to Spain that Spanish society in Mexico would become significantly Jewish. Officials found and condemned clandestine synagogues in Mexico City. At this point, colonial administrators instituted
the Law of the Pure Blood, which prohibited migration to Mexico for
New Christians (Cristiano Nuevo), i.e. anyone who could not prove to be Old Christians for at least the last three generations. In addition, the administration initiated the
Mexican Inquisition to ensure the Catholic orthodoxy of all migrants to Mexico. The Mexican Inquisition was also deployed in the traditional manner to ensure orthodoxy of converted indigenous peoples. The first victims of burnings (or
autos de fé) of the Mexican Inquisition were indigenous converts convicted of heresy or crypto-Jews convicted of relapsing into their ancestral faith. Except for those allowed to settle the province of
Nuevo Leon under an exemption from the Blood Purity Laws, the number of conversos migrating to the New World was reduced.
Northeastern Mexico (Nuevo León) (1590s to early 17th century) The colonization of New Spain took place as a northward expansion over increasingly harsh geography, in regions that were occupied by tribes angered at the encroachment; they formed loose confederations of indigenous peoples to resist the settlers. Spain financed the expansion by exploiting mineral wealth, enslaving, or forcing indigenous peoples to labor in mines. It established
encomiendas for raising livestock, thereby displacing the local people. The indigenous peoples of the North-Eastern quadrant of
New Spain (Nueva España) proved particularly resistant to colonial pressures. The
Chichimec,
Apache, and other tribes resisted conversion to Christianity and avoided being impressed as laborers or slaves on Spanish ranches and in mines. The Spanish believed such peoples made the frontier (
frontera) a lawless region.
Luis Carvajal y de la Cueva, a royal accountant, was a Portuguese
New Christian. He received a royal charter from the Spanish Crown to settle
Nuevo León, a large expanse of land in the hostile frontier. Because of the dangers and difficulties of this region, Carvajal y de la Cueva received an exemption in his charter from the usual requirement that he prove that all new settlers were "Old Christians" (
of at least three generations) rather than recently converted Jews or Muslims. This exemption allowed people to go to Nuevo León who were legally barred from entering
New Spain elsewhere. Carvajal was authorized to bring 100 soldiers and 60 laborers to New Spain; many have been documented as crypto-Jews. . With Carvajal as governor,
Monterrey was established as the center (now in the state of Nuevo León). Within a few years, some people reported to authorities in Mexico City that Jewish rites were being performed in the Northern Province and efforts to convert heathen indigenous peoples were lax. Carvajal's Lieutenant Governor,
Gaspar Castaño de Sosa, led a large expedition to
New Mexico in 1591 in an effort to establish a colony. Castaño was arrested for this unauthorized expedition and sentenced to exile in the
Philippines. The sentence was later reversed, but he had already been killed in the
Molucca Islands when the Chinese slaves on his ship mutinied. Governor Carvajal, his immediate family members, and others of his entourage were called to appear before the Inquisition in Mexico City. They were arrested and jailed. The governor subsequently died in jail, prior to a sentence of exile. The rest of the family ended up being implicated for relapsing into Judaism, so they were all executed by
burning at the stake, except for one nephew who escaped arrest by fleeing to Italy, and one nephew who was a Dominican friar. His nephew, also named
Luis, wrote the earliest-known writings by a Jew in the Americas. When Carvajal was in office, the city of Monterrey became a destination for other crypto-Jews who wanted to escape the Mexican Inquisition in the south of the territory. Thus, Nuevo León and the founding of Monterrey are significant as they attracted crypto-Jewish migrants from all parts of
New Spain. They created one of the earliest Jewish-related communities in Mexico. (The Jewish communities in modern Mexico, which practice their Judaism openly, were not established until the late 19th and early 20th centuries, after considerable immigration of Ashkenazi Jews from eastern Europe, and
Mizrahi Jews from Turkey and Syria.) The Carvajal family was an overall famous converted Hispano-Portuguese family, with very prominent male figures, but it is important to dive into the women in the family as well, specifically Isabel de Carvajal. Women like Isabel de Carvajal kept their practices close to them. These practices could have involved “bodily inscriptions” like how they ate and dressed, and putting on a front of “configuring the home” to put on a Catholic persona.
Former New Spain territories in the U.S. Southwest, 17th–18th centuries Due to the Inquisition activities in Nuevo León, many crypto-Jewish descendants migrated to frontier colonies further west, using the trade routes passing through the towns of the Sierra Madre Occidental and Chihuahua, Hermosillo and Cananea, and to the north on the trade route to
Paso del Norte and
Santa Fe (both cities in the colonial
Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico). Some even traveled to
Alta California on the Pacific Coast. In the late 20th century, in modern-day
Southwestern United States specifically
New Mexico, which was a former territory of New Spain, several
Hispanos of New Mexico have stated a belief that they are descended from crypto-Jews of the colonial period. While most maintain their Roman Catholic and Christian faiths, they often cite as evidence memories of older relatives practicing Jewish traditions. Since the 1990s, the crypto-Jews of New Mexico have been extensively studied and documented by several research scholars, including Stanley M. Hordes, Janet Liebman Jacobs,
Schulamith Halevy, and Seth D. Kunin, who calls them
Hispanos. Kunin noted that most of this group in New Mexico has not formally embraced Judaism nor joined the organized Jewish community. Though some have been sceptical, such as Folklorist Judith Neulander arguing that people could be referring to traditions of modern
Ashkenazi Jews migrants and
Evangelical Protestant Christians who purposely acquired and employed Jewish traditions. More recently,
Evangelical Protestant Christians have opened missionary groups aimed at cultivating evangelical doctrine in Southwestern American communities where crypto-Judaism had survived. The highly influential Hordes has been charged with "single-minded speculation based on largely ephemeral or highly ambiguous evidence" for his conclusion that modern-day Hispanos who claim crypto-Jewish roots are heirs to an unbroken chain of transmission. Kunin responded to some of this criticism in his book
Juggling Identities: Identity and Authenticity Among the Crypto-Jews, in the response Kunin iterated that these scholars were misunderstanding New Mexican identity which, while authentically tied to Christian and Pueblo historicity, is in line with other Spanish
converso histories.
Colombia In the department of
Antioquia,
Colombia, as well as in the greater
Paisa region, some families also hold traditions and oral accounts of Jewish descent. In this population, Y-DNA genetic analysis has shown an origin of male founders predominantly from "southern Spain but also suggest that a fraction came from northern Iberia and that some possibly had a Sephardic origin".
Medellín has a tradition of the
marranada, where a
pig is slaughtered, butchered and consumed on the streets of every neighborhood each
Christmas. This custom has been interpreted as an annual affirmation of the rejection of Jewish law.
Bolivia A safe haven destination for
Sephardic Conversos during the Spanish colonial era was
Santa Cruz de la Sierra. In 1557 many crypto-Jews joined
Ñuflo de Chávez and were among the pioneers who founded the city. During the 16th century more crypto-Jews that faced persecution from the Inquisition and local authorities in nearby
Potosí,
La Paz and
La Plata moved to Santa Cruz, as it was the most isolated urban settlement and because the Inquisition did not bother the
Conversos there; Some settled in the city of Santa Cruz and its adjacent towns, including
Vallegrande, Postrervalle,
Portachuelo, Terevinto,
Pucará, and
Cotoca. Several of the oldest Catholic families in Santa Cruz are of Jewish ancestry; some families still practice certain traditions of Judaism. As recently as the 1920s, several families preserved seven-branched candlesticks and served dishes cooked with
kosher practices. and in various other countries of
South America, such as
Brazil (see Synagogue Kahal Zur Israel in Recife),
Argentina,
Uruguay,
Venezuela,
Chile,
Peru and
Ecuador. From these communities comes the proverb, "Catholic by faith, Jewish by blood". == In Jewish rabbinical law ==