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To the End of the Earth: A History of the Crypto-Jews of New Mexico
In 1981, while working as New Mexico State Historian, Stanley M. Hordes began to hear stories of Hispanos who lit candles on Friday night and abstained from eating pork. Puzzling over the matter, Hordes realized that these practices might very well have been passed down through the centuries from early crypto-Jewish settlers in New Spain. After extensive research and hundreds of interviews, Hordes concluded that there was, in New Mexico and the Southwest, a Sephardic legacy derived from the "converso" community of Spanish Jews.
In "To the End of the Earth," Hordes explores the remarkable story of crypto-Jews and the tenuous preservation of Jewish rituals and traditions in Mexico and New Mexico over the past five hundred years. He follows the crypto-Jews from their Jewish origins in medieval Spain and Portugal to their efforts to escape persecution by migrating to the New World and settling in the far reaches of the northern Mexican frontier.
Drawing on individual biographies (including those of colonial officials accused of secretly practicing Judaism), family histories, Inquisition records, letters, and other primary sources, Hordes provides a richly detailed account of the economic, social and religious lives of crypto-Jews during the colonial period and after the annexation of New Mexico by the United States in 1846. While the American government offered more religious freedom than had the Spanish colonial rulers, cultural assimilation into Anglo-American society weakened many elements of the crypto-Jewish tradition.
Hordes concludes with a discussion of the reemergence of crypto-Jewish culture and the reclamation of Jewish ancestry within the Hispano community in the late twentieth century. He examines the publicity surrounding the rediscovery of the crypto-Jewish community and explores the challenges inherent in a study that attempts to reconstruct the history of a people who tried to leave no documentary record.
In "To the End of the Earth," Hordes explores the remarkable story of crypto-Jews and the tenuous preservation of Jewish rituals and traditions in Mexico and New Mexico over the past five hundred years. He follows the crypto-Jews from their Jewish origins in medieval Spain and Portugal to their efforts to escape persecution by migrating to the New World and settling in the far reaches of the northern Mexican frontier.
Drawing on individual biographies (including those of colonial officials accused of secretly practicing Judaism), family histories, Inquisition records, letters, and other primary sources, Hordes provides a richly detailed account of the economic, social and religious lives of crypto-Jews during the colonial period and after the annexation of New Mexico by the United States in 1846. While the American government offered more religious freedom than had the Spanish colonial rulers, cultural assimilation into Anglo-American society weakened many elements of the crypto-Jewish tradition.
Hordes concludes with a discussion of the reemergence of crypto-Jewish culture and the reclamation of Jewish ancestry within the Hispano community in the late twentieth century. He examines the publicity surrounding the rediscovery of the crypto-Jewish community and explores the challenges inherent in a study that attempts to reconstruct the history of a people who tried to leave no documentary record.
348 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2005
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September 17, 2015
My family comes from southern Colorado, the San Luis Valley (culturally the same as northern New Mexico), and are the type of Chicano sometimes called ‘manitos’ by people in southern New Mexico. (I’m told that the first indicator of being a manito is if you call shortbread cookies with anise seed ‘biscochitos’ rather than ‘biscochos’.) I’ve spent a lot of time in the cemeteries in Conejos County, CO, and I am familiar with many of the surnames discussed in this book, and have seen several tombstones with Judaic references on them, including my great-great grandmother’s, who had a star carved on a footstone, which went unnoticed for decades until my father and I were cleaning her fenced-in plot. That was the day I became interested in crypto-Judaism, although it has taken me many years to get around to this book (I needed to learn some general history of the Spanish Empire first).
The book lays out several indicators of Jewish background, and here are a few: letting the blood of slaughtered animals spill into the ground, especially chickens. A lot of bathing and grooming on Friday nights. Old testament names. Death rites such as turning the person’s head to the wall just before dying, or placing coins, food or pearls in the mouths to take to the next world with them. What I found most interesting is that once the U.S. took the territory and there was freedom of religion, many crypto-Jewish families did not revert to Judaism, but rather left Catholicism officially and became Protestants, which afforded them more freedom to study the Old Testament, becoming Methodists, Presbyterians, Seventh-Day Adventists (which celebrate Saturday as the Sabbath, particularly attractive to conversos), or Jehovah’s Witnesses, who reject trinitarianism, hellfire, Christmas and Easter.
When going back through your genealogy, if a family had lived in Spain, and then moved to Portugal or the Canary Islands prior to emigrating to North America, there was a good chance they were a converso family. If they were part of Juan de Oñate’s expedition to what is now northern New Mexico, there may also be a good chance that they were conversos or crypto-Jews, as the author makes a somewhat convincing case that Oñate may have been Jewish himself and trying to escort as many crypto-Jews as possible beyond the reach of the Inquisition. This also includes newly emigrated people sent to reinforce Oñate’s community. If your last name was Robledo, Armijo, Duran, Lujan, Rael, Torres, Perea, or Cháves – there was a strong chance that you were of Jewish origin (lesser possibilities include Roybal, Quintana, Sánchez, Romero or Abeyta). ‘Rael’ was a name I found very interesting because it was probably changed from the Jewish name ‘Ysrael’. These families tended to intermarry across several generations, and were also known to have professions associated with conversos such as mercantilism and banking. Interestingly, when white settlers, Germanic Ashkenazi Jews among them, came from the east coast, they did not recognize any Jewish qualities among the inhabitants of this area, either because they did not mix socially to the degree where families’ customs could have been noted, or because the new settlers were not looking for fellow Jews.
In my family history we have a Gurulé, and my aunts often mentioned they were French, though without any proof other than their father had said so. When we read “Origins of New Mexico Families: A Genealogy of the Spanish Colonial Period” , we were excited to read about Jacques Grolet, who was a Frenchman who had wandered over from Texas after an unsuccessful French excursion from what is now Louisiana. The author of this book expands the narrative, places him with three other soldiers, one of whom, Jean l’Archivéque, Hispanicized his name to Juan Archibeque along with Grolet’s change to Santiago Gurulé. Upon further research, the author determines that their hometowns in France were known for being settling places for New Christians fleeing Portugal. This is what I love about this book – it compiles exhaustive research, plus a bit of conjecture, to make a cohesive story and paint a living portrait of the time and place, as opposed to “Origins of New Mexico Families: A Genealogy of the Spanish Colonial Period”, which is mostly two separate lists (17th & 18th Centuries) of family names in alphabetical order.
This book explained so many things about my family, particularly the religious schisms that occurred in the early 20th century that affected who we associated with or not, such as the ones who became Seventh-Day Adventists. It also explains why certain parts of my family (converso vs. mestizo) looked the way they did. In general it gave me a greater picture of life during that time, and gave me hope for the endurance of a culture which seemed to have disappeared, which is often how I feel about the San Luis Valley in general.
The book lays out several indicators of Jewish background, and here are a few: letting the blood of slaughtered animals spill into the ground, especially chickens. A lot of bathing and grooming on Friday nights. Old testament names. Death rites such as turning the person’s head to the wall just before dying, or placing coins, food or pearls in the mouths to take to the next world with them. What I found most interesting is that once the U.S. took the territory and there was freedom of religion, many crypto-Jewish families did not revert to Judaism, but rather left Catholicism officially and became Protestants, which afforded them more freedom to study the Old Testament, becoming Methodists, Presbyterians, Seventh-Day Adventists (which celebrate Saturday as the Sabbath, particularly attractive to conversos), or Jehovah’s Witnesses, who reject trinitarianism, hellfire, Christmas and Easter.
When going back through your genealogy, if a family had lived in Spain, and then moved to Portugal or the Canary Islands prior to emigrating to North America, there was a good chance they were a converso family. If they were part of Juan de Oñate’s expedition to what is now northern New Mexico, there may also be a good chance that they were conversos or crypto-Jews, as the author makes a somewhat convincing case that Oñate may have been Jewish himself and trying to escort as many crypto-Jews as possible beyond the reach of the Inquisition. This also includes newly emigrated people sent to reinforce Oñate’s community. If your last name was Robledo, Armijo, Duran, Lujan, Rael, Torres, Perea, or Cháves – there was a strong chance that you were of Jewish origin (lesser possibilities include Roybal, Quintana, Sánchez, Romero or Abeyta). ‘Rael’ was a name I found very interesting because it was probably changed from the Jewish name ‘Ysrael’. These families tended to intermarry across several generations, and were also known to have professions associated with conversos such as mercantilism and banking. Interestingly, when white settlers, Germanic Ashkenazi Jews among them, came from the east coast, they did not recognize any Jewish qualities among the inhabitants of this area, either because they did not mix socially to the degree where families’ customs could have been noted, or because the new settlers were not looking for fellow Jews.
In my family history we have a Gurulé, and my aunts often mentioned they were French, though without any proof other than their father had said so. When we read “Origins of New Mexico Families: A Genealogy of the Spanish Colonial Period” , we were excited to read about Jacques Grolet, who was a Frenchman who had wandered over from Texas after an unsuccessful French excursion from what is now Louisiana. The author of this book expands the narrative, places him with three other soldiers, one of whom, Jean l’Archivéque, Hispanicized his name to Juan Archibeque along with Grolet’s change to Santiago Gurulé. Upon further research, the author determines that their hometowns in France were known for being settling places for New Christians fleeing Portugal. This is what I love about this book – it compiles exhaustive research, plus a bit of conjecture, to make a cohesive story and paint a living portrait of the time and place, as opposed to “Origins of New Mexico Families: A Genealogy of the Spanish Colonial Period”, which is mostly two separate lists (17th & 18th Centuries) of family names in alphabetical order.
This book explained so many things about my family, particularly the religious schisms that occurred in the early 20th century that affected who we associated with or not, such as the ones who became Seventh-Day Adventists. It also explains why certain parts of my family (converso vs. mestizo) looked the way they did. In general it gave me a greater picture of life during that time, and gave me hope for the endurance of a culture which seemed to have disappeared, which is often how I feel about the San Luis Valley in general.
August 22, 2016
Very well documented. The research is fantastic. Hordes was New Mexico's State Historian and started to hear about Sephardic Jews' descendants living among the people of New Mexico. He delves into an almost unknown history of the Hispanics of New Mexico and their ancestors' incredible journeys into the untamed lands of New Mexico. The long arm of the Spanish Inquisition manages to demand the return of some to be tried as Judaizers. But because of the distance many more survived. Many New Mexicans today are able to trace their ancestry to the few Spanish families of the original "entradas". With the help of his meticulous research, that Hordes and his many collaborators have done, more people are finding their real roots. His knowledge of Spanish from an early age allowed Hordes to delve into the archives of Mexico, Spain and Portugal and put together a compelling story about the Crypto Jews in the US and Mexico and elsewhere after the Spanish Diaspora of the 1400 and 1500 hundreds.
March 19, 2012
The author is an authority on the history of the crypto-Jews in New Mexico and presents his research, taken from many primary sources, of these people in Spain during the Inquisition, Mexico and New Mexico in a very readable format. The notes and bibliography alone make this book a valuable reference to refer to again and again. There are also genealogical references which could prove valuable to Hispanic families who believe their lineage stemed from crypto-Jews.
October 18, 2013
A well-researched history of the Jews who let Spain and Portugal after the start of the Inquisition to settle in Mexico and New Mexico. The last two chapters about their modern day descendants made me curious about the hidden and forgotten practices of the Hispanic "conversos" of the Land of Enchantment.
July 17, 2023
This book is a detailed history of the migration of Sephardic Jews from Spain and Portugal during the Spanish Inquisition. Many of the refugees migrated to Mexico (and South American and India), and this book provides the history of the migration from Spain and Portugal through Mexico to New Mexico. Many of the Sephardic Jews were Crypto-Jews, meaning they hid their faith and over time the family members did not know why their family practiced certain rituals. Many converted to Catholicism but continued certain practices like circumcision or placing Stars of David on their tombstones. This is a part of my personal history as I am of Ukrainian Jewish history, and my ex-husband's family was originally Portuguese Jews that migrated to North Mexico. My ex knew he had Jewish history on the his father's side of the family, and it was confirmed by his uncle when we visited his family in Saltillo Mexico. There are genetic traits as well that confirm this family history including certain diseases that are common to people of Jewish ancestry. There are quite a few Sephardic Jews that are observant now in New Mexico, so people are often finding their roots and embracing them.
September 20, 2020
When I was living and working in Santa Fe NM, Dr. Hordes was a congregant and a friend. This was thirty years ago, but he was already doing the research that became this book. Dr. Hordes was state historian and noted several instances where people mentioned Jewish customs and traditions among local Hispanics. He was intrigued and turned his expertise to learning more. Having served a Portuguese Jewish congregation in the Caribbean as a rabbi, I had already studied the history of Iberian Jewry and the Diaspora created by the expulsion of Jews from Spain and Portugal in 1492 and afterwards from Portugal. This history adds to our knowledge of that history in North America. It is readable and I found it to be fascinating. It is also a very early story of the cultural diversity That is essential to understanding the United States. It should be read by anyone interested in how persecuted minorities cope with being such in this country.
February 28, 2017
In this interesting book, Stanley Hordes explores whether remnants of a "crypto-Jewish" culture, originally imported by Spanish settlers, continues to exist in New Mexico. Although scholars dispute the existence and depth of such a sub-culture, and the evidence is admittedly thin, Hordes makes a persuasive case that some of New Mexico's earliest settlers were crypto-Jews, and that traces of that culture are part of the mix that shaped its history.
In the wake of the reunification of Spain in 1492, the Spanish demanded that Jews convert or emigrate. Many chose to convert, and some appear to have done so wholeheartedly, but many converted only in name and continued to follow their faith, which he refers to as "crypto-Jews". To enforce religious orthodoxy, Spain implemented the Inquisition, among the purposes of which were to root out these crypto-Jews. Egregious cases of crypto-Judaism were punishable by death.
When Spain began to colonize Central America, Hordes argues, some of the new colonists were crypto-Jews. Hordes argues that some of the crypto-Jews fled to lands they hoped would be beyond the reach of the Inquisition, only to find that Spain had exported it to Mexico. In Hordes' telling, the ability of crypto-Jews to follow their faith waxed and waned with the strength of the Inquisition in Mexico. In his view, some of the crypto-Jews joined the expedition to establish New Mexico to get further away from the reach of the Inquisition.
Hordes marshals extensive evidence in favor of the existence of crypto-Jews in Mexico and New Mexico based on genealogical records from Spain and Portugal, records of the Inquisition (which indeed found numerous cases of admitted crypto-Jews, differences in Catholic and Jewish naming patterns, endogamy patterns, evidence of Jewish symbols at gravesites and public places, oral histories and DNA testing. While Hordes concedes that, due to the age and or absence of records, his proof is not absolute, taken as a whole, the evidence convinces simply because there are no alternative explanations that make more sense. And there appears to be a general consensus on the existence of the subculture, although some differ on the details, and one gadfly, Judith Neuland, has argued at length that Hordes has invented a subculture because he wanted to believe in it.
I'm not a professional historian, so I cannot say for sure, but I believe Hordes has the better of the argument. In any event, this is a fascinating book. Hordes' writing style is pedestrian at best, but his research is thorough and the subject matter pulls the reader through.
In the wake of the reunification of Spain in 1492, the Spanish demanded that Jews convert or emigrate. Many chose to convert, and some appear to have done so wholeheartedly, but many converted only in name and continued to follow their faith, which he refers to as "crypto-Jews". To enforce religious orthodoxy, Spain implemented the Inquisition, among the purposes of which were to root out these crypto-Jews. Egregious cases of crypto-Judaism were punishable by death.
When Spain began to colonize Central America, Hordes argues, some of the new colonists were crypto-Jews. Hordes argues that some of the crypto-Jews fled to lands they hoped would be beyond the reach of the Inquisition, only to find that Spain had exported it to Mexico. In Hordes' telling, the ability of crypto-Jews to follow their faith waxed and waned with the strength of the Inquisition in Mexico. In his view, some of the crypto-Jews joined the expedition to establish New Mexico to get further away from the reach of the Inquisition.
Hordes marshals extensive evidence in favor of the existence of crypto-Jews in Mexico and New Mexico based on genealogical records from Spain and Portugal, records of the Inquisition (which indeed found numerous cases of admitted crypto-Jews, differences in Catholic and Jewish naming patterns, endogamy patterns, evidence of Jewish symbols at gravesites and public places, oral histories and DNA testing. While Hordes concedes that, due to the age and or absence of records, his proof is not absolute, taken as a whole, the evidence convinces simply because there are no alternative explanations that make more sense. And there appears to be a general consensus on the existence of the subculture, although some differ on the details, and one gadfly, Judith Neuland, has argued at length that Hordes has invented a subculture because he wanted to believe in it.
I'm not a professional historian, so I cannot say for sure, but I believe Hordes has the better of the argument. In any event, this is a fascinating book. Hordes' writing style is pedestrian at best, but his research is thorough and the subject matter pulls the reader through.
August 26, 2019
I just re-read this book cover to cover with a different eye, now that I understand he's talking about MY family, not just a general history of New Mexico. The flow of the book is excellent, and it's a good read as well as being a treasure trove of information for New Mexican family history.
November 23, 2019
While the topic of this book is fascinating, I found it much too scholarly and became impatient with the level of detail of the geneologies and politics of the times.
August 16, 2023
A wonderful book to follow the lives of 9 families through hundreds of years. So many crypto Jews . Who knew?
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews