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Against the Inquisition
From a renowned prize-winning Argentinian author comes a historical novel based on the true story of one man’s faith, spirit, and resistance during the Spanish Inquisition in Latin America.
Born in sixteenth-century Argentina, Francisco Maldonado da Silva is nine years old when he sees his father, Don Diego, arrested one harrowing afternoon because of his beliefs. Raised in a family practicing its Jewish faith in secret under the condemning eyes of the Spanish Inquisition, Francisco embarks on a personal quest that will challenge, enlighten, and forever change him.
He completes his education in a monastery; he reads the Bible; he dreams of reparation; he dedicates his life to science, developing a humanistic approach and becoming one of the first accredited medical doctors in Latin America; and most of all, he longs to reconnect with his father in Lima, Perú, the City of Kings.
So begins Francisco’s epic journey to fight for his true faith, to embrace his past, and to draw from his father’s indomitable strength in the face of unimaginable persecution. But the arm of the Holy Inquisition is an intractable one. As it reaches for Francisco, he sheds his mask to defend his freedom. Against seemingly insurmountable odds, he will prove that while the body can be broken, the spirit fights back, endures, and survives.
Born in sixteenth-century Argentina, Francisco Maldonado da Silva is nine years old when he sees his father, Don Diego, arrested one harrowing afternoon because of his beliefs. Raised in a family practicing its Jewish faith in secret under the condemning eyes of the Spanish Inquisition, Francisco embarks on a personal quest that will challenge, enlighten, and forever change him.
He completes his education in a monastery; he reads the Bible; he dreams of reparation; he dedicates his life to science, developing a humanistic approach and becoming one of the first accredited medical doctors in Latin America; and most of all, he longs to reconnect with his father in Lima, Perú, the City of Kings.
So begins Francisco’s epic journey to fight for his true faith, to embrace his past, and to draw from his father’s indomitable strength in the face of unimaginable persecution. But the arm of the Holy Inquisition is an intractable one. As it reaches for Francisco, he sheds his mask to defend his freedom. Against seemingly insurmountable odds, he will prove that while the body can be broken, the spirit fights back, endures, and survives.
623 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
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1816 people want to read
About the author
Marcos Aguinis
48 books88 followers[For Spanish see below -- Para Español ver mas abajo]
Marcos Aguinis is an author with extensive international training in literature, neurosurgery, psychoanalysis, the arts and history. “I have traveled the world, but I have also traveled across different professions.” Aguinis was born in Córdoba, Argentina in 1935,
He published his first book in 1963, and since then he has written thirteen novels, fourteen essay collections, four short story collections, and two biographies. Most of them have become bestsellers and have generated enthusiasm and controversy. Mr. Aguinis was the first author outside of Spain to receive the prestigious Planeta Award for his book “The Inverted Cross ” and his bestselling novel “Against the Inquisition” has been translated to several languages and praised by Nobel Prize Laureate Mario Vargas Llosa as a “stirring song of freedom”.
Aguinis has received numerous awards and honors from institutions around the world, recognizing his humanitarian and literary work, including the Hispanic Literature and Culture Institute of California Award (USA), Fernando Jeno Award (Mexico), the Annual Silver Plaque of the EFE Agency (Spain), the title of Knight of Letters and Arts (France), and the Argentine Association of Authors Great Honorific Award for his life’s work. He received Honorary Doctorate degrees from Tel Aviv University, Israel (2002) and Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel (2008) and he was named a Distinguished Writer in Residence at the American University in Washington, D.C. and Public Policy Scholar by the Wilson Center (Washington, USA).
Español:
Nació en Córdoba, Argentina. Escritor que ha transitado una amplia formación internacional en literatura, medicina, psicoanálisis, arte e historia. En 1963 apareció su primer libro y, desde entonces, ha publicado doce novelas, catorce libros de ensayos, cuatro libros de cuentos y dos biografías que generan entusiasmo y polémica.
Aguinis es seguido por millares de admiradores que recomiendan, discuten y coleccionan sus obras.
A lo largo de su extensa carrera literaria, Marcos Aguinis ha recibido numerosos premios y honores de instituciones de Argentina y otros países del mundo, incluyendo el Premio Planeta (España), Premio Instituto Cultural y Literario Hispánico de California (EE.UU), Premio Fernando Jeno (México), Placa anual de la Agencia EFE (España), Título de Caballero de las Artes y de las Letras (Francia) y el Gran Premio de Honor de la Sociedad Argentina de Escritores (Argentina). También ha recibido el Título de Doctor Honoris Causa de la Universidad de Tel Aviv (Israel) y de la Universidad Hebrea de Jerusalén (Israel) y fue nombrado Escritor Residente Distinguido por la American University en Washington, D.C. (EE.UU) y Académico en Políticas Públicas por el Wilson Center (Washington, EE.UU).
Marcos Aguinis is an author with extensive international training in literature, neurosurgery, psychoanalysis, the arts and history. “I have traveled the world, but I have also traveled across different professions.” Aguinis was born in Córdoba, Argentina in 1935,
He published his first book in 1963, and since then he has written thirteen novels, fourteen essay collections, four short story collections, and two biographies. Most of them have become bestsellers and have generated enthusiasm and controversy. Mr. Aguinis was the first author outside of Spain to receive the prestigious Planeta Award for his book “The Inverted Cross ” and his bestselling novel “Against the Inquisition” has been translated to several languages and praised by Nobel Prize Laureate Mario Vargas Llosa as a “stirring song of freedom”.
Aguinis has received numerous awards and honors from institutions around the world, recognizing his humanitarian and literary work, including the Hispanic Literature and Culture Institute of California Award (USA), Fernando Jeno Award (Mexico), the Annual Silver Plaque of the EFE Agency (Spain), the title of Knight of Letters and Arts (France), and the Argentine Association of Authors Great Honorific Award for his life’s work. He received Honorary Doctorate degrees from Tel Aviv University, Israel (2002) and Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel (2008) and he was named a Distinguished Writer in Residence at the American University in Washington, D.C. and Public Policy Scholar by the Wilson Center (Washington, USA).
Español:
Nació en Córdoba, Argentina. Escritor que ha transitado una amplia formación internacional en literatura, medicina, psicoanálisis, arte e historia. En 1963 apareció su primer libro y, desde entonces, ha publicado doce novelas, catorce libros de ensayos, cuatro libros de cuentos y dos biografías que generan entusiasmo y polémica.
Aguinis es seguido por millares de admiradores que recomiendan, discuten y coleccionan sus obras.
A lo largo de su extensa carrera literaria, Marcos Aguinis ha recibido numerosos premios y honores de instituciones de Argentina y otros países del mundo, incluyendo el Premio Planeta (España), Premio Instituto Cultural y Literario Hispánico de California (EE.UU), Premio Fernando Jeno (México), Placa anual de la Agencia EFE (España), Título de Caballero de las Artes y de las Letras (Francia) y el Gran Premio de Honor de la Sociedad Argentina de Escritores (Argentina). También ha recibido el Título de Doctor Honoris Causa de la Universidad de Tel Aviv (Israel) y de la Universidad Hebrea de Jerusalén (Israel) y fue nombrado Escritor Residente Distinguido por la American University en Washington, D.C. (EE.UU) y Académico en Políticas Públicas por el Wilson Center (Washington, EE.UU).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 120 reviews
June 10, 2018
Based on true events. Early 17th century Peru - the Inquisition is in full swing and a young Francisco finds his father is secretly a Jew. His father is arrested and the family's assets are absorbed by the Office of the Inquisition to pay for the father's trial, food, torture and other sundries. Francisco ends up in a monastery, becomes a Catholic and a doctor. Francisco has doubts about what the Church is up to and gets his father to teach him the Jewish faith. In the last half of the book Francisco is in jail, eventually for 13 years, and confounds the Inquisition by not repenting, not denying and not begging to be saved.
It is this last part which is the highlight of the book covering a series of doctrinal debates between the merits of Judaism and Christianity, the process of the Inquisition, the economics of how greed drove much of the Inquisition Judges. Up to this part the book meandered along with plenty of religious discussions, Francisco's life story and history lessons on Spain, Portugal and the treatment of Jews.
It is this last part which is the highlight of the book covering a series of doctrinal debates between the merits of Judaism and Christianity, the process of the Inquisition, the economics of how greed drove much of the Inquisition Judges. Up to this part the book meandered along with plenty of religious discussions, Francisco's life story and history lessons on Spain, Portugal and the treatment of Jews.
August 3, 2016
"La Gesta del Marrano" probablemente sea la novela más célebre de Marcos Aguinis, y merece la celebridad que tiene por su brillante y riguroso retrato de una época, con detalles poco conocidos. El tema es interesantísimo, y la novela se lee fácilmente. Sin embargo, hay algunos excesos.
La novela es larga, y hay partes que se podrían haber cortado sin que la historia sufriera. Algunas partes no parecen cumplir función alguna más que retratar algún aspecto de la época o reforzar alguna opinión del autor. La prosa de Aguinis también tiene sus defectos. Exagera en el uso de metáforas, con la consecuencia de que algunas parecen artificiales, como si las hubiese metido donde están por la necesidad imperiosa de escribir bien. Otras le quitan claridad al texto. A veces se le cuela algún término médico que no cualquiera entiende o que parece fuera de lugar en medio de una novela. Otras veces, para evitar la repetición de una palabra, la sustituye por una otra que llama la atención por sí misma en lugar de dejar que la prosa fluya (en particular, recuerdo que usó una palabra extraña en lugar de "burro" o "asno"). La prosa de Aguinis sería mejor si él hiciera menos esfuerzos por "escribir bien".
La parte final del libro tiene algunos excesos también. Hay algún pasaje inverosímil, o que por lo menos desafía la "suspensión del descreimiento" del lector. La transformación del personaje termina en algunas acciones descritas innecesariamente con lujo de detalles y con una pomposidad que cansa.
Sin embargo, si no se juzga al libro exclusivamente como novela y se tiene en cuenta su contenido informativo sobre una época interesantísima de la historia y sobre aspectos poco difundidos, como la salvaje persecución a judíos y "nuevos cristianos" de la época colonial, es claro que "La Gesta del Marrano" es un libro que debe leerse. Y es que el libro probablemente no haya sido concebido solamente como novela, como parecen demostrar las notas explicativas al pie (sería más efectivo, desde un punto de vista literario, arreglárselas para que esa información estuviera en el texto principal).
O sea, el libro es mucho más que una novela, y al tomarlo como eso, como un libro de historia en forma de novela, se le perdonan casi todas las carencias, y se lee con sumo interés y, también, con el horror que representa el enterarse de algunos de los aspectos más siniestros de nuestra historia.
La novela es larga, y hay partes que se podrían haber cortado sin que la historia sufriera. Algunas partes no parecen cumplir función alguna más que retratar algún aspecto de la época o reforzar alguna opinión del autor. La prosa de Aguinis también tiene sus defectos. Exagera en el uso de metáforas, con la consecuencia de que algunas parecen artificiales, como si las hubiese metido donde están por la necesidad imperiosa de escribir bien. Otras le quitan claridad al texto. A veces se le cuela algún término médico que no cualquiera entiende o que parece fuera de lugar en medio de una novela. Otras veces, para evitar la repetición de una palabra, la sustituye por una otra que llama la atención por sí misma en lugar de dejar que la prosa fluya (en particular, recuerdo que usó una palabra extraña en lugar de "burro" o "asno"). La prosa de Aguinis sería mejor si él hiciera menos esfuerzos por "escribir bien".
La parte final del libro tiene algunos excesos también. Hay algún pasaje inverosímil, o que por lo menos desafía la "suspensión del descreimiento" del lector. La transformación del personaje termina en algunas acciones descritas innecesariamente con lujo de detalles y con una pomposidad que cansa.
Sin embargo, si no se juzga al libro exclusivamente como novela y se tiene en cuenta su contenido informativo sobre una época interesantísima de la historia y sobre aspectos poco difundidos, como la salvaje persecución a judíos y "nuevos cristianos" de la época colonial, es claro que "La Gesta del Marrano" es un libro que debe leerse. Y es que el libro probablemente no haya sido concebido solamente como novela, como parecen demostrar las notas explicativas al pie (sería más efectivo, desde un punto de vista literario, arreglárselas para que esa información estuviera en el texto principal).
O sea, el libro es mucho más que una novela, y al tomarlo como eso, como un libro de historia en forma de novela, se le perdonan casi todas las carencias, y se lee con sumo interés y, también, con el horror que representa el enterarse de algunos de los aspectos más siniestros de nuestra historia.
November 11, 2018
This is the true and moving story of a Jewish family from Portugal whose members flee the Iberian Peninsula after the Spanish Edict of Expulsion is issued in 1492. Diego Núňes da Silva is a medical doctor who ends up in Peru, only to find that the Inquisition has reached the town in which he and his family have settled, Ibatín. They flee to another town, Córdoba, and from there to Santiago in Chile. Eventually, Dr. da Silva is arrested by the Office of the Inquisition on suspicion of continuing to practise Judaism.
When I visited Lima in Peru a few years ago, I saw in a museum the weapons of torture that were used by the Catholic Church. I knew about the methods deployed to achieve confessions, but I was not aware that the Church, at the same time as torturing people, seized their worldly possessions and benefitted from them. Against the Inquisition sets the record straight and it does so with passages of brilliance that convey the historic importance of events.
Inquisitorial persecution does not end with Diego Núňes da Silva. His eldest son is taken away, his wife quietly goes mad and his two daughters are forced into a convent. It falls on his younger son, Francisco, to fight back. And fight back he does, in unexpected fashion.
Francisco has not seen his father for many years – anyone accused of being a Jew is taken to Lima – when he himself sets off for Lima, determined to both study medicine and find his father. In the process, Francisco finds himself. At its core, Against the Inquisition is an eloquently told story about the pain of cultural and religious identity denied. There are beautiful passages about Francisco’s joy on discovering the religion of his ancestors.
“Only someone who has had to bear a double identity, spending years in fear and shame while hiding what he knows to be his authentic self, can know the depth of such suffering.”
The above had in mind a Jew in the mid-1500s in Latin America, but any lesbian or gay man still in the closet would relate to its sentiment.
My only issue with this novel is that every female character is depicted as either overwhelmed by life or is somehow written out. It’s not that there aren’t women: there’s Francisco’s wife, for instance, and she evidently survives, but how? The emphasis instead is on how weak she is, how little she knows and how she’s too naïve to cope. It’s testament to the excellence of the author’s prose that I read to the end!
When I visited Lima in Peru a few years ago, I saw in a museum the weapons of torture that were used by the Catholic Church. I knew about the methods deployed to achieve confessions, but I was not aware that the Church, at the same time as torturing people, seized their worldly possessions and benefitted from them. Against the Inquisition sets the record straight and it does so with passages of brilliance that convey the historic importance of events.
Inquisitorial persecution does not end with Diego Núňes da Silva. His eldest son is taken away, his wife quietly goes mad and his two daughters are forced into a convent. It falls on his younger son, Francisco, to fight back. And fight back he does, in unexpected fashion.
Francisco has not seen his father for many years – anyone accused of being a Jew is taken to Lima – when he himself sets off for Lima, determined to both study medicine and find his father. In the process, Francisco finds himself. At its core, Against the Inquisition is an eloquently told story about the pain of cultural and religious identity denied. There are beautiful passages about Francisco’s joy on discovering the religion of his ancestors.
“Only someone who has had to bear a double identity, spending years in fear and shame while hiding what he knows to be his authentic self, can know the depth of such suffering.”
The above had in mind a Jew in the mid-1500s in Latin America, but any lesbian or gay man still in the closet would relate to its sentiment.
My only issue with this novel is that every female character is depicted as either overwhelmed by life or is somehow written out. It’s not that there aren’t women: there’s Francisco’s wife, for instance, and she evidently survives, but how? The emphasis instead is on how weak she is, how little she knows and how she’s too naïve to cope. It’s testament to the excellence of the author’s prose that I read to the end!
August 3, 2018
There is no need to make up stories about a dystopian society in a undetermined future. We already have all the stories of oppression, injustice and fights for freedom that we need in our human history.
“Against the Inquisition” tells the story of a man, raised Christian but with Jew origins, who lives in South America in the early 1600, his struggles between the faith he is taught in monasteries and his father’s and his ancestors’s faith, and his fight for his belief in a time that leaves very little space for freedom of thoughts.
This book moved me deeply. Not much in the universe makes me as furious as injustice and persecution of someone based on someone else’s religious beliefs. It was extremely upsetting reading how the attempts made by the main character to reason and use logic with the inquisitors were just dismissed with answers like “Forget all your questions and accept the Lord Jesus Christ”. I just can’t stand this attitude.
Maybe your reaction to this book depends on your personal belief, but I did not see it as a personal attack to one dottrine in defence of another. This book tells the story of all those people that were and are tortured because their behaviour does not comply with someone else’s belief. This is what will make you hate and love reading this book, the sense of undeserved injustice and the hopelessness of logical thinking and reasoning with people that just cannot stand the idea of someone thinking differently. This book was for me an ode to freedom of thoughts, and a tribute to those who died and still die fighting for this freedom. The fact that the main character is Jewish and the torturers Christian is completely irrelevant. It could have been the story of an Atheist, imprisoned because they refuse to pray a God they don’t believe in, or a homosexual, sentenced to death because of their feelings for someone.
As someone else said in the reviews, this book has a bit of the flavour of an historical 1984: I think that the fact that it is based on history makes “Against the Inquisition” very powerful. When you read a good dystopian fiction, you can recognise aspects of our reality in the society that the authors describe, and this is what makes these books so intense, because you read them and think “Oh gosh, I hope we don’t get to that point”. When you don’t just recognise some aspects of the society, but you know that this shit really happened, that, my friends, gives you the creeps at night!
Basically, this book brings together my two favourite genres, historical fiction and dystopian novels, and I highly recommend it if you like either of these two genres.
“Against the Inquisition” tells the story of a man, raised Christian but with Jew origins, who lives in South America in the early 1600, his struggles between the faith he is taught in monasteries and his father’s and his ancestors’s faith, and his fight for his belief in a time that leaves very little space for freedom of thoughts.
This book moved me deeply. Not much in the universe makes me as furious as injustice and persecution of someone based on someone else’s religious beliefs. It was extremely upsetting reading how the attempts made by the main character to reason and use logic with the inquisitors were just dismissed with answers like “Forget all your questions and accept the Lord Jesus Christ”. I just can’t stand this attitude.
Maybe your reaction to this book depends on your personal belief, but I did not see it as a personal attack to one dottrine in defence of another. This book tells the story of all those people that were and are tortured because their behaviour does not comply with someone else’s belief. This is what will make you hate and love reading this book, the sense of undeserved injustice and the hopelessness of logical thinking and reasoning with people that just cannot stand the idea of someone thinking differently. This book was for me an ode to freedom of thoughts, and a tribute to those who died and still die fighting for this freedom. The fact that the main character is Jewish and the torturers Christian is completely irrelevant. It could have been the story of an Atheist, imprisoned because they refuse to pray a God they don’t believe in, or a homosexual, sentenced to death because of their feelings for someone.
As someone else said in the reviews, this book has a bit of the flavour of an historical 1984: I think that the fact that it is based on history makes “Against the Inquisition” very powerful. When you read a good dystopian fiction, you can recognise aspects of our reality in the society that the authors describe, and this is what makes these books so intense, because you read them and think “Oh gosh, I hope we don’t get to that point”. When you don’t just recognise some aspects of the society, but you know that this shit really happened, that, my friends, gives you the creeps at night!
Basically, this book brings together my two favourite genres, historical fiction and dystopian novels, and I highly recommend it if you like either of these two genres.
August 26, 2018
An interesting but sometimes agonising novel
I struggled with with one greatly. The setting was a new one for me (historic novels aren't my thing) and wasn't a topic I had lot of incumbent interest in. Over the course of the book I learned a many new things about the inquisition, Catholicism and Judaism and am glad of my enlightenment.
The problem for me is that I found the story crawled in the beginning and for much of the middle. The detail made for heavy going, though its hard in hindsight to say that it should have been dropped. It wasn't until around page 400 that I would pick up the book at every opportunity because I wanted to read more. It took me several weeks to get through the first instance 2/3rds and then 2 days for the remainder...
One thing I did like is that the author brought Francesco to life for me, and I empathised with the character throughout the book. It must have been very difficult to do so while being constrained by the facts of history.
I wouldn't say this is a bad book, but for a lot of it, I just didn't feel compelled to read more by the book itself. For that reason I have it only 3 stars. The detail and the pacing were just too far off for me to give it more. Still, I would recommend it if the topic is of interest.
I struggled with with one greatly. The setting was a new one for me (historic novels aren't my thing) and wasn't a topic I had lot of incumbent interest in. Over the course of the book I learned a many new things about the inquisition, Catholicism and Judaism and am glad of my enlightenment.
The problem for me is that I found the story crawled in the beginning and for much of the middle. The detail made for heavy going, though its hard in hindsight to say that it should have been dropped. It wasn't until around page 400 that I would pick up the book at every opportunity because I wanted to read more. It took me several weeks to get through the first instance 2/3rds and then 2 days for the remainder...
One thing I did like is that the author brought Francesco to life for me, and I empathised with the character throughout the book. It must have been very difficult to do so while being constrained by the facts of history.
I wouldn't say this is a bad book, but for a lot of it, I just didn't feel compelled to read more by the book itself. For that reason I have it only 3 stars. The detail and the pacing were just too far off for me to give it more. Still, I would recommend it if the topic is of interest.
April 15, 2011
Hay un post apocalipsis y un pre apocalipsis en la vida de Marcos Aguinis. Qué ocasionó la hecatombe, lo desconozco. Pero claramente esta novela se ubica en la época en la que su autor aún no había sucumbido, o aún no se había dado cuenta de que lo había hecho, a la seductora y poderosa influencia de los multimedios y del imperio que todo lo domina. Se volvió un facho, bah. Por otra parte, de haber entrado en contacto con esta lectura en el presente, mi prejuicio ideológico me habría impedido de conocer una de mis obras favoritas. La Gesta del Marrano es una clase de historia, de ética, de valentía, de verdad. Es aquello que católicos, creyentes, ignorantes, aspirantes a curas y abuelitas deberían leer antes de tomar cualquier decisión sobre su devoción. Ubicada en plena inquisición, durante el siglo XVII en el Virreinato del Perú, cuenta la historia de Francisco Maldonado Da silva, un médico judío defensor de la libertad de conciencia y de credo, perseguido y torturado, que soporta los peores vejámenes sin jamás sucumbir en su palabra y sus ideas. Es también la historia de un aparato de poder que sigue reproduciéndose y tomando forma aún hoy. Nuevamente, gracias a la Licenciada por su educación rompe cerebros.
January 3, 2023
Me gustó muchísimo esta novela histórica que habla sobre el vínculo de un hijo y su padre y el lugar de la espiritualidad. Si bien a priori podría sonar “denso” , la novela recrea la vida de un médico en plena inquisición en los albores del virreinato del Perú.
Solo por momentos me resultó algo pesada, como si hubiera capítulos que están de más pero no fue un obstáculo para disfrutar la lectura.
En varios momentos me generó preguntas, y esa es mi mayor aspiración al leer : ¿ Cómo se forman los valores? ¿ hasta qué punto, en cada ser humano, pueden determinar su existencia? ¿Cuál es el límite a una institución? ¿Cuál es la lógica del control? ¿ Como funciona el miedo? ¿Qué estatuto le damos al dolor?
Sí pero ¿encontraré acaso a mi padre ?
-Lo encontrará.
- Ojalá -se corrió para dejarle más espacio ¿cómo lo sabes tú?
-Soy hijo de brujo
-Eras muy pequeño cuando te cazaron.
-Como usted era pequeño cuando casaron al Licenciado.
-No lo casaron. Lo arrestaron y lo llevaron al tribunal de Lima
-¿Hay diferencia?
Solo por momentos me resultó algo pesada, como si hubiera capítulos que están de más pero no fue un obstáculo para disfrutar la lectura.
En varios momentos me generó preguntas, y esa es mi mayor aspiración al leer : ¿ Cómo se forman los valores? ¿ hasta qué punto, en cada ser humano, pueden determinar su existencia? ¿Cuál es el límite a una institución? ¿Cuál es la lógica del control? ¿ Como funciona el miedo? ¿Qué estatuto le damos al dolor?
Sí pero ¿encontraré acaso a mi padre ?
-Lo encontrará.
- Ojalá -se corrió para dejarle más espacio ¿cómo lo sabes tú?
-Soy hijo de brujo
-Eras muy pequeño cuando te cazaron.
-Como usted era pequeño cuando casaron al Licenciado.
-No lo casaron. Lo arrestaron y lo llevaron al tribunal de Lima
-¿Hay diferencia?
October 24, 2020
Una novela inolvidable
Una historia que refleja la heroica vida y resistencia de los judios sefaradi en America Latina. Escrito con elegancia, respeto y consideracion por la vida de los que sufrieron tanto por perpetuar el Judaismo en todo su esplendor! Es un texto sobre los derechos humanos, sobre la dignidad implicita en cada uno de nosotros como personas, sobre la fuerza de la familia, sobre la inmensidad del Creador y Su Amor por la Humanidad. Una maravilla de novela. La recomiendo sin reservas.
Una historia que refleja la heroica vida y resistencia de los judios sefaradi en America Latina. Escrito con elegancia, respeto y consideracion por la vida de los que sufrieron tanto por perpetuar el Judaismo en todo su esplendor! Es un texto sobre los derechos humanos, sobre la dignidad implicita en cada uno de nosotros como personas, sobre la fuerza de la familia, sobre la inmensidad del Creador y Su Amor por la Humanidad. Una maravilla de novela. La recomiendo sin reservas.
June 4, 2017
Le doy 4,5!!
La gesta del marrano narra la historia de Francisco Maldonado da Silva y de su familia, desde la llegada de su padre a Suramérica proveniente de Portugal, hasta su ejecución en Lima.
Además del interesantísimo detalle histórico que presenta el autor, uno de los detalles más resaltables es la valiente e incansable lucha de su personaje principal por defender su derecho a pensar y creer en lo que quiera (era judío en una parte del mundo dominada por los cristianos) y, sobre todo, su increíble sed de conocimiento (infundada por su padre). Esta lucha la libró contra nada menos que la irracional y estúpida iglesia católica del siglo XVII (poco diferente de la moderna, en todo caso) y su inquisición (la cual muchos cavernícolas modernos parecen seguir defendiendo). ¡Qué horrible vida debió ser estar todo el tiempo paranoico acerca de todo lo que se decía, escribía o leía y de quién lo podía denunciar a uno ante el Santo Oficio!
El libro es muy interesante y muy fácil de leer. Narra con detalle las metamorfosis por las que pasan Francisco, su padre, sus hermanos y sus amigos y las luchas internas y externas que deben pelear para poder sobrevivir. El autor describe prístinamente ambientes, personajes, sentimientos y acciones. En fin, un libro muy recomendado acerca de la vida de un personaje que dejó una difícil de borrar marca en la muy manchada sotana de la iglesia católica... y que probablemente tuvo una influencia enorme sobre la manera en que se entienden las libertades individuales hoy en día, especialmente la de consciencia.
Sólo me quedó una duda: ¿Qué pasó con la llave?
La gesta del marrano narra la historia de Francisco Maldonado da Silva y de su familia, desde la llegada de su padre a Suramérica proveniente de Portugal, hasta su ejecución en Lima.
Además del interesantísimo detalle histórico que presenta el autor, uno de los detalles más resaltables es la valiente e incansable lucha de su personaje principal por defender su derecho a pensar y creer en lo que quiera (era judío en una parte del mundo dominada por los cristianos) y, sobre todo, su increíble sed de conocimiento (infundada por su padre). Esta lucha la libró contra nada menos que la irracional y estúpida iglesia católica del siglo XVII (poco diferente de la moderna, en todo caso) y su inquisición (la cual muchos cavernícolas modernos parecen seguir defendiendo). ¡Qué horrible vida debió ser estar todo el tiempo paranoico acerca de todo lo que se decía, escribía o leía y de quién lo podía denunciar a uno ante el Santo Oficio!
El libro es muy interesante y muy fácil de leer. Narra con detalle las metamorfosis por las que pasan Francisco, su padre, sus hermanos y sus amigos y las luchas internas y externas que deben pelear para poder sobrevivir. El autor describe prístinamente ambientes, personajes, sentimientos y acciones. En fin, un libro muy recomendado acerca de la vida de un personaje que dejó una difícil de borrar marca en la muy manchada sotana de la iglesia católica... y que probablemente tuvo una influencia enorme sobre la manera en que se entienden las libertades individuales hoy en día, especialmente la de consciencia.
Sólo me quedó una duda: ¿Qué pasó con la llave?
August 2, 2018
Early 17th century Peru, Francisco Maldonado da Silva, Chile’s first graduated medical doctor, defies the absolute power of the Spanish Inquisition. Against the Inquisition by Marcos Aguinis poetically guides us through Francisco’s spiritual evolution, from childhood, a naïve age when Old and New Christians are the same, to adulthood, a wiser age when he is certain of his difference from all Christians. His persecution isn’t rare. He is one of thousands condemned because of his Jewish blood. What sets him apart is his steadfast conviction, superior knowledge of Christian and Jewish scripture, and courageous refusal to bend to the Inquisitions order to repent. Francisco Maldonado da Silva was imprisoned for 12 years and burnt alive January 23rd, 1639.
I am thankful that Against the Inquisition has been translated into English. It is a beautiful and tragic story that should be experienced by all. It took a while to finish it. This is not light reading. I learned much about the Inquisition’s persecution of the Jewish people and will follow up with my own research into the events of that horrific time in history and into Francisco’s theological arguments. In my opinion, any historical fiction novel that makes the reader think, question, and then research historical people and/or events is superbly written. Against the Inquisition is better than superb, it is exceptional.
I implore you to take the time to read this novel. You will not regret it.
I am thankful that Against the Inquisition has been translated into English. It is a beautiful and tragic story that should be experienced by all. It took a while to finish it. This is not light reading. I learned much about the Inquisition’s persecution of the Jewish people and will follow up with my own research into the events of that horrific time in history and into Francisco’s theological arguments. In my opinion, any historical fiction novel that makes the reader think, question, and then research historical people and/or events is superbly written. Against the Inquisition is better than superb, it is exceptional.
I implore you to take the time to read this novel. You will not regret it.
July 25, 2018
This is historical fiction at its best, rather in Hilary Mantel mode. Meticulously researched, multi-layered, with plenty of authentic historical detail, a good storyline and empathetic and believable characters. It tells the story of real-life Francisco Maldonado da Silva, tracing his life from childhood to death, in the Latin America of the 17th century, when the Spanish Inquisition held sway. Its cruel and savage reprisals against heresy and apostasy mean that Francisco is in great peril because of his Jewish faith, a religion proscribed by the Catholic Church and the members of which they relentlessly hunt down. He has to show incredible bravery to keep to what he considers the true faith and how he does this is the focus of the last part of the novel. There are many characters to keep track of, but the narrative is relatively straight-forward and it’s a compelling story. The sense of time and place is excellently conveyed and the author manages to make a whole era and way of life come alive. I learnt a lot from the book and very much enjoyed what is a gripping tale of faith, courage, love, family, cruelty and oppression.
July 7, 2018
I loved this book. I took off one star because it is soooo long! If it weren't so long I would immediate read it again in it's original Spanish version. I feel that this is a religious version 1984, but with a better ending.
Read
August 28, 2018Horrific and powerful. Am Israel Chai!
December 8, 2024
Novela atrapante donde descubrí que la Santa Inquisición existía en América. La persecución a los judíos.El juicio a un rabino ,el excelente debate y defensa del mismo ante un jurado implacable.
La descripción de los paisajes,la vida,costumbres,emociones de esa época
La descripción de los paisajes,la vida,costumbres,emociones de esa época
October 29, 2018
Colossal
Moving and compellingly good.
A must read book that throws light on bravery and faith.
A true journey.
Thank you Marcos
Moving and compellingly good.
A must read book that throws light on bravery and faith.
A true journey.
Thank you Marcos
February 8, 2022
It took me a while to get into this book, I feel a good chunk of the first half could have been shortened.
Some bits were hard to believe - like making a rope that would support, an admittedly underweight hero, such that he would not fall.
However the “meat” of the book showed how much abuse the human form can and does take when cruel, evil people are defending their way of life. The other side of the coin showed how belief, faith and principles are so important, otherwise we will be crushed by greedy, power hungry autocrats. They unfortunately often have might on their side, but certainly not “right”.
Some bits were hard to believe - like making a rope that would support, an admittedly underweight hero, such that he would not fall.
However the “meat” of the book showed how much abuse the human form can and does take when cruel, evil people are defending their way of life. The other side of the coin showed how belief, faith and principles are so important, otherwise we will be crushed by greedy, power hungry autocrats. They unfortunately often have might on their side, but certainly not “right”.
October 9, 2018
I might have given this 5* half-way through as I found the first half very engaging and interesting, but it did seem to drag a little bit towards the end. The novel is set in South America in the early 1600s, when the Inquisition was in force across various countries ruled by Spain, routing out heretics and Jews. The central character of the novel, Francisco, is brought up a devout Catholic, but learns as a child that his father is a Jew. The novel is two halves of the story - starting with Francisco as a man being interrogated as part of the Inquisition investigation, we follow the development of the beatings and attempts to get him to confess to his sins. At the same time, the other half of the novel goes back to Francisco as a child, growing up in a pleasant environment, then fleeing south with his family, his father’s arrest and his own growth and religious development. It is interesting, well told and - I assume - historically well researched. I found it engaging, learning about a period that I really don’t know much about, and involving as I followed the development and growth of Francisco.
April 24, 2020
Tarde mucho en leer este libro xq sabía q no iba a ser una lectura fácil y rápida. Hoy finalmente la pude culminar y ha sido exactamente lo q esperaba. Con una prosa muy cuidada, amena, en la ha sido fácil imbuirse, el autor nos cuenta la historia de los Maldonado da Silva. Xq a mi me ha parecido q inicia precisamente con la historia de todos para luego ir concentrandose en la historia de Francisco, el hijo menor. Pero, además de la historia de Francisco y su familia, me ha parecido también la historia de una época equivocada, corrupta y por la cual , los católicos debemos seguir piediendo perdón.
La Inquisición ha sido definitivamente uno de los mayores y más aborrecibles equivocaciones de la Iglesia de Roma y nos ha dejado una deuda eterna con la historia pasada, presente y futura. Esta novela nos muestra capítulos particularmente dolorosos, cortesía del Santo Oficio, cuando página tras página, la familia Maldonado da Silva se ve desmembrada, envuenta en una persecución q llevan al padre y hermano de Francisco; acusados de judaizar; a ser juzgados por herejes en Lima, y sus bienes confiscados. A las hermanas se les impone tomar los habitos, la madre muere de tristeza y Franciso queda solo en el mundo, obligado a cuidar cada palabra, cada gesto, q confirme el estigma q ya pesa sobre él, a causa de su padre. He leído tomar forma, más q nunca, esa frase de "podrán correr, pero no esconderse".
Una de las escenas más desgarradoras ha sido la del encuentro de Francisco con su padre, o lo quedaba de él. Don Diego había sobrevivido, apenas, a las torturas y vive estigmatizado no solo por culpa del juicio al q fue sometido, sino por el peso de haber traicionado a su familia, a sus amigos y a su raza. Este es el ejemplo q lleva a Francisco, décadas después, a no repetir la historia de su padre, a sostenerse ante la injusticia de quienes lo condenan por ignorancia y fanatismo, a respetarse a sí mismo y a ennoblecer su nombre y su historia. La crudeza de la narración no le quita belleza, se nos muestra la grandeza de este personaje y su inquebrantable e inolvidable dignidad, se nos ofrece un canto a la ética y a la libertad de pensamiento, a la vez que nos es descrito el implacable poder ejercido por la iglesia en todos los estamentos de la sociedad.
Tengo q reconocer q ésta es una parte de la historia de la conquista, de la q había oído hablar mucho, pero sobre la q nunca había profundizado. La época de la conquista es, para la mayoría de los americanos, la historia de abusos contra los indios. Poco nos ha interesado a la mayoría los abusos de otros ámbitos contra otros q estaban, igualmente, en las manos inescrupulosas de la corrupción, el fanatismo y la ignorancia.
Es un libro ideal para los amantes de la historia, sin censuras, cruda y real. Pero recomiendo q se lea en forma pausada, xq aunq la lectura no es difícil, hay una gran cantidad de datos históricos q deben ser asimilados para poder seguir la trama y necesaria para digerir los hechos…
Un libro agónico y doloroso. Leerlo ha sido un verdadero honor.
La Inquisición ha sido definitivamente uno de los mayores y más aborrecibles equivocaciones de la Iglesia de Roma y nos ha dejado una deuda eterna con la historia pasada, presente y futura. Esta novela nos muestra capítulos particularmente dolorosos, cortesía del Santo Oficio, cuando página tras página, la familia Maldonado da Silva se ve desmembrada, envuenta en una persecución q llevan al padre y hermano de Francisco; acusados de judaizar; a ser juzgados por herejes en Lima, y sus bienes confiscados. A las hermanas se les impone tomar los habitos, la madre muere de tristeza y Franciso queda solo en el mundo, obligado a cuidar cada palabra, cada gesto, q confirme el estigma q ya pesa sobre él, a causa de su padre. He leído tomar forma, más q nunca, esa frase de "podrán correr, pero no esconderse".
Una de las escenas más desgarradoras ha sido la del encuentro de Francisco con su padre, o lo quedaba de él. Don Diego había sobrevivido, apenas, a las torturas y vive estigmatizado no solo por culpa del juicio al q fue sometido, sino por el peso de haber traicionado a su familia, a sus amigos y a su raza. Este es el ejemplo q lleva a Francisco, décadas después, a no repetir la historia de su padre, a sostenerse ante la injusticia de quienes lo condenan por ignorancia y fanatismo, a respetarse a sí mismo y a ennoblecer su nombre y su historia. La crudeza de la narración no le quita belleza, se nos muestra la grandeza de este personaje y su inquebrantable e inolvidable dignidad, se nos ofrece un canto a la ética y a la libertad de pensamiento, a la vez que nos es descrito el implacable poder ejercido por la iglesia en todos los estamentos de la sociedad.
Tengo q reconocer q ésta es una parte de la historia de la conquista, de la q había oído hablar mucho, pero sobre la q nunca había profundizado. La época de la conquista es, para la mayoría de los americanos, la historia de abusos contra los indios. Poco nos ha interesado a la mayoría los abusos de otros ámbitos contra otros q estaban, igualmente, en las manos inescrupulosas de la corrupción, el fanatismo y la ignorancia.
Es un libro ideal para los amantes de la historia, sin censuras, cruda y real. Pero recomiendo q se lea en forma pausada, xq aunq la lectura no es difícil, hay una gran cantidad de datos históricos q deben ser asimilados para poder seguir la trama y necesaria para digerir los hechos…
Un libro agónico y doloroso. Leerlo ha sido un verdadero honor.
July 29, 2018
A fascinating historical novel about Francisco Maldonado da Silva, a son of Portuguese Jewish immigrants who fled to South America from Europe to escape the Spanish Inquisition. Jews who did not abandon their faith had to worship in absolute secrecy while acting like "good Catholics" in day to day life. When he was 10, Francisco's Father Diego was arrested for being Jewish, all of the family's assets were confiscated by the church, and Diego's Father was taken to Lima to be tortured until he named other secret Jews and repented for practicing Judaism. Da Silva learned about his Jewish heritage at an early age, and in spite (or because) of his Father's fate was determined to become a good Catholic. Reunited with his Father (who had been released after years of torture and indoctrination) he slowly came to accept his Jewish heritage, especially after realizing how weak were the Catholic arguments justifying the eradication of Judaism.
In his early thirties, while a doctor in Chile and married to a good Catholic, he gradually integrates more Jewish elements into his covert practice of Judaism, even circumcising himself one evening. Soon after his is exposed by his own sisters and taken to Lima to face the Inquisition.
This is a powerful and moving story of faith with a thoughtful examination of some of the reasons that Christians (in particular Catholics) considered Jews to be heretics deserving of death. Francisco da Silva stayed true to his beliefs through 13 years of imprisonment and harassment in an Inquisition dungeon, and even through his torturous end in the auto-da-fe during which he was burned at the stake. Da Silva would have been made a saint if he had been Catholic.
A fascinating rendition of a tragic period in history, but also a scathing commentary on yet another black period in the history of Christianity. Looking through all the years of human history, has religion (pick your religion) had a beneficial influence?
For more on the background to this period of South American history, see
https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1...
In his early thirties, while a doctor in Chile and married to a good Catholic, he gradually integrates more Jewish elements into his covert practice of Judaism, even circumcising himself one evening. Soon after his is exposed by his own sisters and taken to Lima to face the Inquisition.
This is a powerful and moving story of faith with a thoughtful examination of some of the reasons that Christians (in particular Catholics) considered Jews to be heretics deserving of death. Francisco da Silva stayed true to his beliefs through 13 years of imprisonment and harassment in an Inquisition dungeon, and even through his torturous end in the auto-da-fe during which he was burned at the stake. Da Silva would have been made a saint if he had been Catholic.
A fascinating rendition of a tragic period in history, but also a scathing commentary on yet another black period in the history of Christianity. Looking through all the years of human history, has religion (pick your religion) had a beneficial influence?
For more on the background to this period of South American history, see
https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1...
September 24, 2018
The book is beautifully written ad translated. The life of the early settlers is described vividly and is fascinating. The author has done a fantastic job of bringing Francisco to life. I felt that I learned a great deal about the Inquisition, the early days of the the New World, and Judaism. My main critique of the book is that it is a tad too long, and I found myself skimming a lot of the text towards the end.; however, I am glad I persevered with it as it was certainly eye-opening.
November 27, 2018
"Only someone who has had to bear a double identity, spending years in fear and shame while hiding what he knows to be his authentic self, can know the depth of such suffering. Believe me that it is not only a burden, but a blade that stabs you even in your dreams" .
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|| Against The Inquisition || by Marcos Aguinis.
.
Born in the sixteenth century in Argentina. Francisco Maldonado Da Silva is nine years old when he sees his father, Don Diego, arrested one afternoon because of his beliefs. Raised in a family practicing its Jewish faith in secret under the condemning eyes of the Spanish Inquisition, Francisco embarks on a personal quest that will challenge, enlighten, and forever change him.
.
Hands down this is now my favorite book this year so far guys! Oh how I love historical books!
.
This books is based on a true story witch makes it even more special to me. It's so well written and informative, I learned so much about the Spanish Inquisition and the pain the Jewish people went through, I cried like a baby, I got angry and so many more emotions I experienced reading this. We should always remember that human beings can be either kind or evil to one another. We can choose what to be, in this world full of hate, be the kind one, and let's respect each other. I hope that this tipe of history never repeats itself again.
.
This is definitely a 5 starts ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ .
I highly recommend this book!
.
|| Against The Inquisition || by Marcos Aguinis.
.
Born in the sixteenth century in Argentina. Francisco Maldonado Da Silva is nine years old when he sees his father, Don Diego, arrested one afternoon because of his beliefs. Raised in a family practicing its Jewish faith in secret under the condemning eyes of the Spanish Inquisition, Francisco embarks on a personal quest that will challenge, enlighten, and forever change him.
.
Hands down this is now my favorite book this year so far guys! Oh how I love historical books!
.
This books is based on a true story witch makes it even more special to me. It's so well written and informative, I learned so much about the Spanish Inquisition and the pain the Jewish people went through, I cried like a baby, I got angry and so many more emotions I experienced reading this. We should always remember that human beings can be either kind or evil to one another. We can choose what to be, in this world full of hate, be the kind one, and let's respect each other. I hope that this tipe of history never repeats itself again.
.
This is definitely a 5 starts ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ .
I highly recommend this book!
August 4, 2018
The Inquisition was a planned genocide of Jews living in Catholic countries.
The author described Catholic rituals to the extent of obsession. The Catholic flock followed the dictators who lived in sin and made unreasonable demands if the poor and uneducated. One father and his son were not willing to admit to heresay, when Judaism was as important as all male Churches' beliefs.
What has changed with the Catholic Church? The number of young children who were physically, emotionally and sexually abused by male adults, should have bsnkrupted the Vatican. Yet, the Church remains locked in the past and keeps protective women from becoming priests.
There is no evidence that Jesus wasn't in a committed relationship and the Apostles had families and most likely several wives.
It is time for the Church to appoint married men and women as priests. To begin with, it can be couples who have older children and have experience as a partner, parent, friend and worker.
The author described Catholic rituals to the extent of obsession. The Catholic flock followed the dictators who lived in sin and made unreasonable demands if the poor and uneducated. One father and his son were not willing to admit to heresay, when Judaism was as important as all male Churches' beliefs.
What has changed with the Catholic Church? The number of young children who were physically, emotionally and sexually abused by male adults, should have bsnkrupted the Vatican. Yet, the Church remains locked in the past and keeps protective women from becoming priests.
There is no evidence that Jesus wasn't in a committed relationship and the Apostles had families and most likely several wives.
It is time for the Church to appoint married men and women as priests. To begin with, it can be couples who have older children and have experience as a partner, parent, friend and worker.
August 25, 2018
Against the Inquisition by Marcos Aguinis, translated from the Spanish by Carolina De Robertis, is both an enlightening historical account of one man's power of belief and a searing indictment of those who seek to impose rigid doctrines on others using intimidation and violence. It is a powerful story about discovering one's truth and resisting oppression.
Despite filling more than 600 pages, the story clips along with excellent world-building and characterization, and the final 200 pages are downright riveting. After following Francisco for so long through so many trials of mind and body, the climax is stunning - with a subtle but masterful transition of perspective that places the reader among an onlooking crowd that fortunately includes a historian who witnesses, and documents for the world and for the future, Francisco's extraordinary final stand for freedom.
Despite filling more than 600 pages, the story clips along with excellent world-building and characterization, and the final 200 pages are downright riveting. After following Francisco for so long through so many trials of mind and body, the climax is stunning - with a subtle but masterful transition of perspective that places the reader among an onlooking crowd that fortunately includes a historian who witnesses, and documents for the world and for the future, Francisco's extraordinary final stand for freedom.
December 27, 2024
Think of a series you screen or stream "inspired by a true story." Season one fills the backstory of the hero. Lots of details, subplots, intrigues, betrayals, but a few desperate grabs at better fortune grip. The pace remains ruminating, characters meander, in a plot slow rather than rapid, but steady.
But you're not sure if you'll stick around for season two. The storyline feels cluttered, the historical context demands attention as it's unfamiliar, the setting keeps shifting from Old World to the New, a century after the conquistadors. Religion dominates, the Inquisition expands into Chile, down to the Argentine. There, Jewish "marranos" who've relapsed from being "New Christians" to reclaim their ancestral allegiance either die at the Act of Faith stakes, torture and imprisonment, or they'll again renounce under pressure and be sentenced to galleys, a release into shame and infamy, or if before their sentences of death are carried out by Church-Crown, garroting rather than immolation.
My advice? Stay the course. For who emerges but, at last, the grown-up Francisco Maldonado de Silva, a doctor who chooses to stand tall rather then capitulate, from a Sephardic family fleeing Portugal, whose other members have been beaten into submission, or baptized and assimilated. Francisco, about 60% of the way in, emerges from the chronicles adapted into brisk, episodic chapters, nearly cinematic, as as a flawed protagonist, whose struggle "based on real events" will move you. No cliché. This saga kept me awake, and sometimes agitated through Christmastime nights into my dreams, as Marcos Aguinis succeeds in summoning his imaginative skills to create a memorable testimony. It's astonishing how from the archives, this Argentinian assemble his craft.
A few minor points, such as a laywoman donning the "habit" (which would be a cassock or black "soutane") of the Jesuits, gave me pause. There's no distinction clarified between the "Edict of Faith," when the Inquisition thunders in unexpectedly to tell townspeople they have thirty days to confess as backsliders or else, and the "Act of Faith," when the same cabal makes true their threat.
Yet the cameos by real-life saints, the Franciscan friar (my translation by Carolina de Robertis threatens to label every religious order cleric the canonically incorrect "monk"--this as with "enslaved person/ black/ woman" etc. jars; the first "hábito" usage repeats the Spanish, as for Isabel "el jesuita" whereas "esclavos" for slaves was the source's case, reflecting sensibility shifts in our publishing industry, presumably, between the original 1991 and this rendition, 2018; as for "frailes y monjas." Aguinis' preferences shift, annoyingly albeit repeated in popular mis-identifications) Francisco Solano and the Dominican Martin de Porres, reveal in sensitively fleshed-out (in more than one "mortifying" scene), how fragile men sworn to vows before God try to attend to the beaten-down indigenous and African populations in selfless service.
Not that Aguinis apologizes for the abuses meted out. Yet the Church, abundant in its manifold as ever transgressions, nonetheless tried when no other institution did, to ease the sufferings and maladies of those trodden down by Capital. If run by weak, deluded, and confused idealists compromised as were their Jewish opponents by imperial machinations, clerical malfeasance, military rule, and economic burdens, the Church isn't distorted beyond belief or sense. Aguinis through Francisco tries to stay fair and honest. He's not perfect, anymore than those of his predecessors and relatives who try to evade the Church's long arm and blunt stake of an auto-de-fe.
It's worth the incremental build-up. My guess is that the mass of evidence drawn on from the records of Francisco de Montesinos' eyewitness and commissioned account obligated Aguinis to faithfully put pen to paper in the same style (allowing for technology since 1640) of elaboration.
And, to present to today's readers an intricate and in-depth panorama of the Catholic crackdown in South America, which like original judicial and ecclesiastical, Crown and Dominican-staffed, Spanish and Portuguese systems to punish, discipline, terrorize, extort, and, yes, purportedly save souls while still among the living heretics such as Lutherans, and their Jewish "reverts" judged equally untrustworthy as unfaithful sinners or spies desperately resistant to priest, pope, potentate, and the powers across Iberian empires...well, the author immerses us into a turbulent flow of eloquence, litigation, desperation, and deliverance if not from, than amidst, evil. Often caricatured, this Inquisition reveals not a cartoonish legal, penal, and theological apparatus, but a relentlessly pursued and executed in every sense by means of indoctrination, scholastic prevarications and casuistic logic, financial gain, and ideological propaganda. It's impressive, if in a dispiriting regime.
P.S. The cover image of the English ed. (2018, Amazon Crossing) reminds me of the threat attributed in midrash by God to the people at Sinai that if they didn't accept the Torah, He'd basically upend the mountain itself on them, since the previous "seventy nations" of the world had said to Him on its offering of the Law, "thanks but no thanks," leaving the Almighty to make the Jews an offer they couldn't refuse. The Talmud opines that carrying out commandments imposed upon one by the Law may be more and not less beneficial, again inverting the way we commonly reason out such "logical but not really deep down, but faith-based" practices, rather than "beliefs" in the Christian sense. All of which relates to the theme of the novel. But I don't think this "aggadah" is mentioned within.
But you're not sure if you'll stick around for season two. The storyline feels cluttered, the historical context demands attention as it's unfamiliar, the setting keeps shifting from Old World to the New, a century after the conquistadors. Religion dominates, the Inquisition expands into Chile, down to the Argentine. There, Jewish "marranos" who've relapsed from being "New Christians" to reclaim their ancestral allegiance either die at the Act of Faith stakes, torture and imprisonment, or they'll again renounce under pressure and be sentenced to galleys, a release into shame and infamy, or if before their sentences of death are carried out by Church-Crown, garroting rather than immolation.
My advice? Stay the course. For who emerges but, at last, the grown-up Francisco Maldonado de Silva, a doctor who chooses to stand tall rather then capitulate, from a Sephardic family fleeing Portugal, whose other members have been beaten into submission, or baptized and assimilated. Francisco, about 60% of the way in, emerges from the chronicles adapted into brisk, episodic chapters, nearly cinematic, as as a flawed protagonist, whose struggle "based on real events" will move you. No cliché. This saga kept me awake, and sometimes agitated through Christmastime nights into my dreams, as Marcos Aguinis succeeds in summoning his imaginative skills to create a memorable testimony. It's astonishing how from the archives, this Argentinian assemble his craft.
A few minor points, such as a laywoman donning the "habit" (which would be a cassock or black "soutane") of the Jesuits, gave me pause. There's no distinction clarified between the "Edict of Faith," when the Inquisition thunders in unexpectedly to tell townspeople they have thirty days to confess as backsliders or else, and the "Act of Faith," when the same cabal makes true their threat.
Yet the cameos by real-life saints, the Franciscan friar (my translation by Carolina de Robertis threatens to label every religious order cleric the canonically incorrect "monk"--this as with "enslaved person/ black/ woman" etc. jars; the first "hábito" usage repeats the Spanish, as for Isabel "el jesuita" whereas "esclavos" for slaves was the source's case, reflecting sensibility shifts in our publishing industry, presumably, between the original 1991 and this rendition, 2018; as for "frailes y monjas." Aguinis' preferences shift, annoyingly albeit repeated in popular mis-identifications) Francisco Solano and the Dominican Martin de Porres, reveal in sensitively fleshed-out (in more than one "mortifying" scene), how fragile men sworn to vows before God try to attend to the beaten-down indigenous and African populations in selfless service.
Not that Aguinis apologizes for the abuses meted out. Yet the Church, abundant in its manifold as ever transgressions, nonetheless tried when no other institution did, to ease the sufferings and maladies of those trodden down by Capital. If run by weak, deluded, and confused idealists compromised as were their Jewish opponents by imperial machinations, clerical malfeasance, military rule, and economic burdens, the Church isn't distorted beyond belief or sense. Aguinis through Francisco tries to stay fair and honest. He's not perfect, anymore than those of his predecessors and relatives who try to evade the Church's long arm and blunt stake of an auto-de-fe.
It's worth the incremental build-up. My guess is that the mass of evidence drawn on from the records of Francisco de Montesinos' eyewitness and commissioned account obligated Aguinis to faithfully put pen to paper in the same style (allowing for technology since 1640) of elaboration.
And, to present to today's readers an intricate and in-depth panorama of the Catholic crackdown in South America, which like original judicial and ecclesiastical, Crown and Dominican-staffed, Spanish and Portuguese systems to punish, discipline, terrorize, extort, and, yes, purportedly save souls while still among the living heretics such as Lutherans, and their Jewish "reverts" judged equally untrustworthy as unfaithful sinners or spies desperately resistant to priest, pope, potentate, and the powers across Iberian empires...well, the author immerses us into a turbulent flow of eloquence, litigation, desperation, and deliverance if not from, than amidst, evil. Often caricatured, this Inquisition reveals not a cartoonish legal, penal, and theological apparatus, but a relentlessly pursued and executed in every sense by means of indoctrination, scholastic prevarications and casuistic logic, financial gain, and ideological propaganda. It's impressive, if in a dispiriting regime.
P.S. The cover image of the English ed. (2018, Amazon Crossing) reminds me of the threat attributed in midrash by God to the people at Sinai that if they didn't accept the Torah, He'd basically upend the mountain itself on them, since the previous "seventy nations" of the world had said to Him on its offering of the Law, "thanks but no thanks," leaving the Almighty to make the Jews an offer they couldn't refuse. The Talmud opines that carrying out commandments imposed upon one by the Law may be more and not less beneficial, again inverting the way we commonly reason out such "logical but not really deep down, but faith-based" practices, rather than "beliefs" in the Christian sense. All of which relates to the theme of the novel. But I don't think this "aggadah" is mentioned within.
November 20, 2025
Think of a series you screen or stream "inspired by a true story." Season one fills the backstory of the hero. Lots of details, subplots, intrigues, betrayals, but a few desperate grabs at better fortune grip. The pace remains ruminating, characters meander, in a plot slow rather than rapid, but steady.
But you're not sure if you'll stick around for season two. The storyline feels cluttered, the historical context demands attention as it's unfamiliar, the setting keeps shifting from Old World to the New, a century after the conquistadors. Religion dominates, the Inquisition expands into Chile, down to the Argentine. There, Jewish "marranos" who've relapsed from being "New Christians" to reclaim their ancestral allegiance either die at the Act of Faith stakes, torture and imprisonment, or they'll again renounce under pressure and be sentenced to galleys, a release into shame and infamy, or if before their sentences of death are carried out by Church-Crown, garroting rather than immolation.
My advice? Stay the course. For who emerges but, at last, the grown-up Francisco Maldonado de Silva, a doctor who chooses to stand tall rather then capitulate, from a Sephardic family fleeing Portugal, whose other members have been beaten into submission, or baptized and assimilated. Francisco, about 60% of the way in, emerges from the chronicles adapted into brisk, episodic chapters, nearly cinematic, as as a flawed protagonist, whose struggle "based on real events" will move you. No cliché. This saga kept me awake, and sometimes agitated through Christmastime nights into my dreams, as Marcos Aguinis succeeds in summoning his imaginative skills to create a memorable testimony. It's astonishing how from the archives, this Argentinian assemble his craft.
A few minor points, such as a laywoman donning the "habit" (which would be a cassock or black "soutane") of the Jesuits, gave me pause. There's no distinction clarified between the "Edict of Faith," when the Inquisition thunders in unexpectedly to tell townspeople they have thirty days to confess as backsliders or else, and the "Act of Faith," when the same cabal makes true their threat.
Yet the cameos by real-life saints, the Franciscan friar (my translation by Carolina de Robertis threatens to label every religious order cleric the canonically incorrect "monk"--this as with "enslaved person/ black/ woman" etc. jars; the first "hábito" usage repeats the Spanish, as for Isabel "el jesuita" whereas "esclavos" for slaves was the source's case, reflecting sensibility shifts in our publishing industry, presumably, between the original 1991 and this rendition, 2018; as for "frailes y monjas." Aguinis' preferences shift, annoyingly albeit repeated in popular mis-identifications) Francisco Solano and the Dominican Martin de Porres, reveal in sensitively fleshed-out (in more than one "mortifying" scene), how fragile men sworn to vows before God try to attend to the beaten-down indigenous and African populations in selfless service.
Not that Aguinis apologizes for the abuses meted out. Yet the Church, abundant in its manifold as ever transgressions, nonetheless tried when no other institution did, to ease the sufferings and maladies of those trodden down by Capital. If run by weak, deluded, and confused idealists compromised as were their Jewish opponents by imperial machinations, clerical malfeasance, military rule, and economic burdens, the Church isn't distorted beyond belief or sense. Aguinis through Francisco tries to stay fair and honest. He's not perfect, anymore than those of his predecessors and relatives who try to evade the Church's long arm and blunt stake of an auto-de-fe.
It's worth the incremental build-up. My guess is that the mass of evidence drawn on from the records of Francisco de Montesinos' eyewitness and commissioned account obligated Aguinis to faithfully put pen to paper in the same style (allowing for technology since 1640) of elaboration.
And, to present to today's readers an intricate and in-depth panorama of the Catholic crackdown in South America, which like original judicial and ecclesiastical, Crown and Dominican-staffed, Spanish and Portuguese systems to punish, discipline, terrorize, extort, and, yes, purportedly save souls while still among the living heretics such as Lutherans, and their Jewish "reverts" judged equally untrustworthy as unfaithful sinners or spies desperately resistant to priest, pope, potentate, and the powers across Iberian empires...well, the author immerses us into a turbulent flow of eloquence, litigation, desperation, and deliverance if not from, than amidst, evil. Often caricatured, this Inquisition reveals not a cartoonish legal, penal, and theological apparatus, but a relentlessly pursued and executed in every sense by means of indoctrination, scholastic prevarications and casuistic logic, financial gain, and ideological propaganda. It's impressive, if in a dispiriting regime.
P.S. The cover image of the English ed. (2018, Amazon Crossing) reminds me of the threat attributed in midrash by God to the people at Sinai that if they didn't accept the Torah, He'd basically upend the mountain itself on them, since the previous "seventy nations" of the world had said to Him on its offering of the Law, "thanks but no thanks," leaving the Almighty to make the Jews an offer they couldn't refuse. The Talmud opines that carrying out commandments imposed upon one by the Law may be more and not less beneficial, again inverting the way we commonly reason out such "logical but not really deep down, but faith-based" practices, rather than "beliefs" in the Christian sense. All of which relates to the theme of the novel. But I don't think this "aggadah" is mentioned within.
But you're not sure if you'll stick around for season two. The storyline feels cluttered, the historical context demands attention as it's unfamiliar, the setting keeps shifting from Old World to the New, a century after the conquistadors. Religion dominates, the Inquisition expands into Chile, down to the Argentine. There, Jewish "marranos" who've relapsed from being "New Christians" to reclaim their ancestral allegiance either die at the Act of Faith stakes, torture and imprisonment, or they'll again renounce under pressure and be sentenced to galleys, a release into shame and infamy, or if before their sentences of death are carried out by Church-Crown, garroting rather than immolation.
My advice? Stay the course. For who emerges but, at last, the grown-up Francisco Maldonado de Silva, a doctor who chooses to stand tall rather then capitulate, from a Sephardic family fleeing Portugal, whose other members have been beaten into submission, or baptized and assimilated. Francisco, about 60% of the way in, emerges from the chronicles adapted into brisk, episodic chapters, nearly cinematic, as as a flawed protagonist, whose struggle "based on real events" will move you. No cliché. This saga kept me awake, and sometimes agitated through Christmastime nights into my dreams, as Marcos Aguinis succeeds in summoning his imaginative skills to create a memorable testimony. It's astonishing how from the archives, this Argentinian assemble his craft.
A few minor points, such as a laywoman donning the "habit" (which would be a cassock or black "soutane") of the Jesuits, gave me pause. There's no distinction clarified between the "Edict of Faith," when the Inquisition thunders in unexpectedly to tell townspeople they have thirty days to confess as backsliders or else, and the "Act of Faith," when the same cabal makes true their threat.
Yet the cameos by real-life saints, the Franciscan friar (my translation by Carolina de Robertis threatens to label every religious order cleric the canonically incorrect "monk"--this as with "enslaved person/ black/ woman" etc. jars; the first "hábito" usage repeats the Spanish, as for Isabel "el jesuita" whereas "esclavos" for slaves was the source's case, reflecting sensibility shifts in our publishing industry, presumably, between the original 1991 and this rendition, 2018; as for "frailes y monjas." Aguinis' preferences shift, annoyingly albeit repeated in popular mis-identifications) Francisco Solano and the Dominican Martin de Porres, reveal in sensitively fleshed-out (in more than one "mortifying" scene), how fragile men sworn to vows before God try to attend to the beaten-down indigenous and African populations in selfless service.
Not that Aguinis apologizes for the abuses meted out. Yet the Church, abundant in its manifold as ever transgressions, nonetheless tried when no other institution did, to ease the sufferings and maladies of those trodden down by Capital. If run by weak, deluded, and confused idealists compromised as were their Jewish opponents by imperial machinations, clerical malfeasance, military rule, and economic burdens, the Church isn't distorted beyond belief or sense. Aguinis through Francisco tries to stay fair and honest. He's not perfect, anymore than those of his predecessors and relatives who try to evade the Church's long arm and blunt stake of an auto-de-fe.
It's worth the incremental build-up. My guess is that the mass of evidence drawn on from the records of Francisco de Montesinos' eyewitness and commissioned account obligated Aguinis to faithfully put pen to paper in the same style (allowing for technology since 1640) of elaboration.
And, to present to today's readers an intricate and in-depth panorama of the Catholic crackdown in South America, which like original judicial and ecclesiastical, Crown and Dominican-staffed, Spanish and Portuguese systems to punish, discipline, terrorize, extort, and, yes, purportedly save souls while still among the living heretics such as Lutherans, and their Jewish "reverts" judged equally untrustworthy as unfaithful sinners or spies desperately resistant to priest, pope, potentate, and the powers across Iberian empires...well, the author immerses us into a turbulent flow of eloquence, litigation, desperation, and deliverance if not from, than amidst, evil. Often caricatured, this Inquisition reveals not a cartoonish legal, penal, and theological apparatus, but a relentlessly pursued and executed in every sense by means of indoctrination, scholastic prevarications and casuistic logic, financial gain, and ideological propaganda. It's impressive, if in a dispiriting regime.
P.S. The cover image of the English ed. (2018, Amazon Crossing) reminds me of the threat attributed in midrash by God to the people at Sinai that if they didn't accept the Torah, He'd basically upend the mountain itself on them, since the previous "seventy nations" of the world had said to Him on its offering of the Law, "thanks but no thanks," leaving the Almighty to make the Jews an offer they couldn't refuse. The Talmud opines that carrying out commandments imposed upon one by the Law may be more and not less beneficial, again inverting the way we commonly reason out such "logical but not really deep down, but faith-based" practices, rather than "beliefs" in the Christian sense. All of which relates to the theme of the novel. But I don't think this "aggadah" is mentioned within.
October 21, 2017
Es la vida de un inmigrante judio del siglo XVII en América del Sur, las penurias vividas a causa de las persecusiones de la Iglesia Catolica con su organismo represivo denominado "Santa inquisición" Si el acusado no confesaba era torturado hasta la muerte, si lo hacia y se arrepentía por lo general era quemado vivo para redimir su alma y poder descansar en el seno de Dios. En algunas oportunidades era encarcelado de por vida y por supuesto despojado de todas sus pertenencias que pasaban a formar parte del patrimonio eclesiástico. Logicamente, no voy a adelantarles cual fue el destino del protagonista. Muy buena obra.
August 3, 2018
This is a big book about the Inquisition in South America. The author exposed the fearful Catholics, who believed non believers were evil. He told the reader everything you didn't need to know about Catholic rituals, but very little about the victimized Jews. The Church taught young men to flagellate and admonish young women to convents.
Hopefully, centuries later and after many sexual abuse coverups. The Pope needs to take a serious look at female priests.
Not an easy read and not for the juvenile reader, but it teaches us the story of beliefs.
No one can force anyone to believe through force.
Hopefully, centuries later and after many sexual abuse coverups. The Pope needs to take a serious look at female priests.
Not an easy read and not for the juvenile reader, but it teaches us the story of beliefs.
No one can force anyone to believe through force.
August 18, 2018
This is a book rich in historical fact, of an era and part of the world I am unfamiliar with so it was an education as well as a highly engaging read. There is much theological content, but for me that added to the depth and quality of the book. The depth of characters and the amount of detail in the book meant I felt like I was actually there in space and time, even when I read most of it on the train! It's a long book so be prepared for that, but it's worth the investment!
July 2, 2018
I enjoyed "Against the Inquisition". It takes as look at a Jewish doctor hiding his faith during the Inquisition in Spain. I learned a lot about this time in history. I would recommend it to those interested in this time period.
I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a review copy in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion of it.
I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a review copy in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion of it.
July 27, 2018
A So Very Powerful Religious Book.
A time capsule depicting the horror of man's inhumanity to man. Not being overtly religious, I was nevertheless gripped by this recounting of the historical time span noted. Of course, not much has changed over the past centuries, as evidenced in todays worlds religious conflicts and persecutions. It is a very, very powerful rendition.
A time capsule depicting the horror of man's inhumanity to man. Not being overtly religious, I was nevertheless gripped by this recounting of the historical time span noted. Of course, not much has changed over the past centuries, as evidenced in todays worlds religious conflicts and persecutions. It is a very, very powerful rendition.
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