MEXICAN SEPHARDIC SOURCES. Keep in mind that Monterrey, and the state of Nuevo Leon, was settled by 695 Jewish families escaping the Inquisition in Mexico City. Texas was formerly part of Nuevo Leon. Also, Alonso de Leon, son of the governor of Nuevo Leon who lived in Monclova, was from a family who lost several members in the Inquisition. He led 11 expeditions into Texas to find La Salle's Fort St. Louis on Garcitas Creek, the last in 1691. Mexican Sephardic sources bibliography, etc.
Monterrey is Spanish for Mountain of the King. Nuevo Leon was originally "Nuevo Leon de Juda" (New Lion of Judah). A common last name in that part of Mexico is Montoya which is a name many Jews escaping the Inquisition adopted. It's short for "Monte de Y-h" or Y-h's Mountain.
.THE CONQUISTADORES AND CRYPTO-JEWS OF MONTERREY Borders Books, #809
Monterrey, among the cities of Mexico, has a mystique all its own, marked by an enduring and controversial “Jewish question” regarding its founding in 1596. Vito Alessio Robles, the eminent Saltillo scholar early on stated that “all the citizens of Monterrey descend from Jews.” After a public outcry Alessio Robles had to retract his statement. This book reviews the claim that many of the first settlers of Monterrey were indeed of Jewish descent.
The author focuses primarily on the Garza family and establishes beyond a doubt that they were conversos, New Christians from original Jewish families, sometimes labeled Crypto-Jews if they lapsed back to practicing their Jewish faith in secret, the persons pursued by the Inquisition He claims through new archival research that ancestors of the Garza’s were burned at the stake in the 1526 Auto de fé held in the Canary Islands.
In this work, the saga of the principal figures in the Monterrey region during the formative era-Luis de Carvajal, Alberto del Canto, Gaspar Castaño de Sosa, Diego de Montemayor, Francisco Báez de Benavides and Captain Joseph Martínez family of Marin-are presented against the backdrop of the ongoing settlement efforts and battles with the Indians. Valley Village, CA, 2001, 1st Ed., 296 Pgs., HB $40.00.
Isn't history fascinating!