Hispanics Uncovering Roots as Inquisition's 'Hidden' Jews

NY Times ^ | October 29, 2005 | SIMON ROMERO

[Pharmboy]

HOUSTON, Oct. 28 - When she was growing up in a small town in southern Colorado, an area where her ancestors settled centuries ago when it was on the fringes of the northern frontier of New Spain, Bernadette Gonzalez always thought some of the stories about her family were unusual, if not bizarre.

Her grandmother, for instance, refused to travel on Saturday and would use a specific porcelain basin to drain blood out of meat before she cooked it. In one tale that particularly puzzled Ms. Gonzalez, 52, her grandfather called for a Jewish doctor to circumcise him while he was on his death bed in a hospital in Trinidad, Colo.

Only after Ms. Gonzalez moved to Houston to work as a lawyer and began discussing these tales with a Jewish colleague, she said, did "the pieces of the puzzle" start falling into place.

Ms. Gonzalez started researching her family history and concluded that her ancestors were Marranos, or Sephardic Jews, who had fled the Inquisition in Spain and in Mexico more than four centuries ago. Though raised in the Roman Catholic faith, Ms. Gonzalez felt a need to reconnect to her Jewish roots, so she converted to Judaism three years ago.

"I feel like I came home," said Ms. Gonzalez, who now often uses the first name Batya. "The fingerprints of my past were all around me, but I didn't know what they meant."

[dsc]

"I thought once Saved, always Saved."

A lot of people disagree.

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

..........................................

[WildTurkey]

""I thought once Saved, always Saved."

A lot of people disagree.

Oh, no. Here we go again ...

[M. Espinola]

Some Sephardic research links:

Map - Sephardic Diaspora

A Research Tool for Sephardic Genealogy / Jewish Genealogy ( Una Herramienta de Busqueda de Genealogia Sefardita/Judia Informacoes e genealogia Judaica)

source The Virtual Jewish History Tour Portugal

History of Jews in Spain - A Brief Timeline

"2nd Century: Romans settle the Iberian peninsula and find some Jewish families already there, some claiming to be descendants of King David who arrived after the destruction of the first Temple or during the time of Solomon and Nebuchadnezzar. Synagogues are built in the Empire's major cities. Castile is used for pastureland, as it will be used by the Visigoths and Muslims until the Christian conquest ends the wars and agriculture can be practiced safely."

Sephardi Jews

History of the Sephardic Jews

THE SEPHARDIC JEWS IN PORTUGAL

[M. Espinola]

Sephardic - International Society for Sephardic Progress:

[Slings and Arrows]

Well, there is a lot of evidence Jesus was hispanic and probably from Mexico.

The evidence is much stronger that he was Jewish:

1. He lived at home until he was 33.

2. He went into his father's business

3. His mother thought he was G-d.

4. He thought his mother was a virgin.

[Seeing More Clearly Now]

The descendents of the hidden Jews of Spain are the people of Spain today. Most of the population of Spain have Jewish ancestors. Those who were expelled settled in the Americas. Many don't know that this was who their ancestors were. More and more people of this generation are tracing their backgrounds and realizing who they are. For example, they tell of their grandmothers who drew the window shades on Friday night, so people outside could not see in, and then lit two candles. Hispanic families that do no eat pork as a matter of family tradition; families that don't mix meat and dairy; star of David amulets passed down through the generations; learning that certain Spanish surnames are known to historians to have originally been the surnames of converso families.

It is amazing that unique Jewish traditions have been kept in these families under wraps, knowlingly, and in many cases unknowlingly, for over 500 years! That's a lot of generations. Truly a testament to these families and the spiritual strength of Jewish religion and tradition.

[dervish]

"It's an interesting phenomenon: once a thing is demonized, you can be as extreme as you like in criticizing it, but if the historical reality is that it wasn't as bad as the most extreme accusations, people will accuse you of "defending" the thing. "

Pope John Paul II demonized the sins committed during the Inquisition and apologized for them:

"This appeal has prompted a thorough and fruitful reflection, which led to the publication several days ago of a document of the International Theological Commission, entitled: "Memory and Reconciliation: The Church and the Faults of the Past". I thank everyone who helped to prepare this text. It is very useful for correctly understanding and carrying out the authentic request for pardon, based on the objective responsibility which Christians share as members of the Mystical Body, and which spurs today's faithful to recognize, along with their own sins, the sins of yesterday's Christians, in the light of careful historical and theological discernment.

Indeed, "because of the bond which unites us to one another in the Mystical Body, all of us, though not personally responsible and without encroaching on the judgement of God who alone knows every heart, bear the burden of the errors and faults of those who have gone before us" (Incarnationis mysterium, n. 11). The recognition of past wrongs serves to reawaken our consciences to the compromises of the present, opening the way to conversion for everyone.

4. Let us forgive and ask forgiveness! While we praise God who, in his merciful love, has produced in the Church a wonderful harvest of holiness, missionary zeal, total dedication to Christ and neighbour, we cannot fail to recognize the infidelities to the Gospel committed by some of our brethren, especially during the second millennium. Let us ask pardon for the divisions which have occurred among Christians, for the violence some have used in the service of the truth and for the distrustful and hostile attitudes sometimes taken towards the followers of other religions. "

From "Memory and Reconciliation: The Church and the Faults of the Past:


"5.3. The Use of Force in the Service of Truth

To the counter-witness of the division between Christians should be added that of the various occasions in the past millennium when doubtful means were employed in the pursuit of good ends, such as the proclamation of the Gospel or the defense of the unity of the faith. “Another sad chapter of history to which the sons and daughters of the Church must return with a spirit of repentance is that of the acquiescence given, especially in certain centuries, to intolerance and even the use of force in the service of truth.”(78) This refers to forms of evangelization that employed improper means to announce the revealed truth or did not include an evangelical discernment suited to the cultural values of peoples or did not respect the consciences of the persons to whom the faith was presented, as well as all forms of force used in the repression and correction of errors.

Analogous attention should be paid to all the failures, for which the sons and daughters of the Church may have been responsible, to denounce injustice and violence in the great variety of historical situations: “Then there is the lack of discernment by many Christians in situations where basic human rights were violated. The request for forgiveness applies to whatever should have been done or was passed over in silence because of weakness or bad judgement, to what was done or said hesitantly or inappropriately.”(79)

As always, establishing the historical truth by means of historical-critical research is decisive. Once the facts have been established, it will be necessary to evaluate their spiritual and moral value, as well as their objective significance. Only thus will it be possible to avoid every form of mythical memory and reach a fair critical memory capable - in the light of faith - of producing fruits of conversion and renewal. “From these painful moments of the past a lesson can be drawn for the future, leading all Christians to adhere fully to the sublime principle stated by the Council: ‘The truth cannot impose itself except by virtue of its own truth, as it wins over the mind with both gentleness and power.’”(80)"

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20000307_memory-reconc-itc_en.html

[ovrtaxt]

The Confederate Sec.of State was Jewish, I believe.

[Alter Kaker]

Like Patty Hurst, they joined their persecutors.

Not quite. The conversos were forced to "convert" to Catholicism on penalty of death by torture. Those who were able to maintain their Judaism had to do so secretly. I don't think you can blame people for pretending to play along when the alternative is the killing of yourself and your family.

[nutmeg]

If any of you have the opportunity to visit Santa Fe, please tour the Palace of Governors Museum on the Plaza. It has one whole room dedicated to the Jews who settled NM and their roots up to today, how they assimilated into the native and catholic culture but still retained their roots. It is all there.

My husband and I visited New Mexico in 2002 and toured the Governors Museum in Santa Fe. We saw the exhibit you mentioned above, dedicated to the Jews who settled NM. It was absolutely fascinating.

[Pharmboy]

Thank you for those interesting links...

[dsc]

"The conversos were forced to "convert" to Catholicism on penalty of death by torture."

I've heard that asserted, but never credibly.

I have no doubt that you sincerely believe it, but I don't.

[dsc]

"Pope John Paul II demonized the sins committed during the Inquisition and apologized for them:"

a. There is no "demonizing" in the Holy Father's words.

b. He apologizes for such sins as were actually committed, not for wild exaggerations.

[Alter Kaker]

I've heard that asserted, but never credibly.

Ok, why did they pretend to convert then? What do you sincerely believe?

[Alter Kaker]

If you want minutes of dozens, if not hundreds of trials in Spain and Mexico, where individuals were tried for their lives on the charge of "practicing Judaism," I'd be more than happy to refer you to specific document collections (and I mean this offer seriously). I'm not sure how anyone with any knowledge of the period can in good conscience pretend that Jews were not coerced into converting.

[Alouette]

FRmail me to be added or removed from this Judaic/pro-Israel/Russian Jewry ping list.

Warning! This is a high-volume ping list.

[Gumdrop]

Doesn't make sense. As a genealogist, I know that with each generation, the number of ancestors doubles, so that by the time you are at the level of great-great grandparents you are looking at 16 individuals who contributed to your heritage/gene pool.

If Ms Gonzalez was raised a Catholic, it is logical to think that her Jewish ancestors intermarried with the Catholic Spaniards, therefore, she probably has a whole lot more gentile blood than Jewish. Perhaps she believes that one drop is enough to negate her family's history with all the other lines? The fact is that if you go back far enough, she likely had Moslem ancestors too since the Moors were in Spain for many centuries before the reconquest under El Cid.

[Zionist Conspirator]

So that's what's got Buchanan so uptight about his "co-religionists."

[af_vet_rr]

This is unexpected.

Not hardly - my family is primarily descended from Spanish explorers/colonists/soldiers who came over several hundred years ago (1500s-1600s), and some of the family historians have thought that some branches of the family were Jews that had converted or hidden their religion.

I don't think it's the case with us though (having hidden or converted Jews), because my family has always maintained fairly strong ties with Spain, even going so far as to occasionally go back and marry somebody from Spain - shocking as it maybe, members of my family over the centuries would go through the trouble of marrying somebody from Spain, rather than the local "mixed-bloods". I guess that makes us racist. We even had a few missionaries, so we are doubly evil on PC charts.

On the other hand, I've heard of other families in Texas/New Mexico and Florida that have been around as long as my family that probably were Jewish at some point (and they may still be, according to your viewpoints on bloodlines and religion).

It's very hard to determine, because a lot of records of that era were lost, or people took new names. As an example, although slightly opposite of the OP, Lute Olson, the Arizona men's basketball coach, his family name was originally "Pugerud" and it changed over the generations for whatever reason (there's an article linked at Random Genealogy that details it).

Ironicly enough, at least in the case of many Spanish descendants, church records would have been one of primary ways to varify one's genealogy/family history, as they could be quite extensive.