To the End of the Earth: A History of the Crypto-Jews of New Mexico

Abstract

This ambitious work seeks to combine conventional historical methods, critical use of published and unpublished written sources, genealogical research, and oral histories. It is thus, as its author puts it, “the first attempt to provide a comprehensive historical analysis of crypto-Judaism in New Mexico from the earliest European settlement in the late sixteenth century to the mid twentieth century” (p. 7). On the whole, it seems to me that he has succeeded in his aims, thanks in particular to his extensive research in Inquisition archives in Mexico City and Spain, as well as in other unpublished documentary material in AGI archives. It is remarkable — even astonishing — though, that we have had to wait until 2005 for a book to appear on a topic that is so intrinsically interesting and that so directly links North American history with that of the Iberian Peninsula: the history of crypto-Judaism in New Mexico.His is also a topic that requires the historian to provide a great deal of background. Wisely, Hordes keeps his first chapter, on the origins of crypto-Judaism in the Iberian Peninsula, brief. He gives a much more detailed review of the history of the Portuguese New Christians in New Spain, making some use of previously published works but not relying entirely on them. He incorporates his own research on a number of key episodes, such as the 1641 – 42 campaign headed by Bishop Palafox against the Portuguese in New Spain, which immediately led to the biggest Inquisition sweep ever carried out against the New Christians in the colony. While the author’s reliance on his own archival investigations is generally a strength, in some places it is a weakness. One obvious instance is his rather inadequate treatment of the question of religious syncretism and the absorption of Catholic ingredients into crypto-Jewish religious practice and thought in New Spain and New Mexico. As a number of striking omissions from his bibliography confirm, here (as elsewhere in the book) the study would have been buttressed had Hordes made reference to relevant publications from scholars such as Eva Uchmany and, laterally, Nathan Wachtel.The Inquisition arrested a number of high-profile alleged “Judaizers” in New Mexico, including the recently replaced former governor of New Mexico, Bernardo López de Mendizábal, a native of the village of Chietla, near Puebla, in central Mexico. López de Mendizábal was charged with Judaizing during the early 1660s. It is clear that the arrests were politically motivated; López de Mendizábal was on the worst possible terms with the local Franciscans, who were the agents of the Holy Office in this region. Some scholars have concluded on this basis that the accusations should be disregarded. Hordes’s carefully inspection of the trial records, however, provides enough evidence to challenge the view that these were merely trumped-up charges; he also finds evidence that several of the accused were probably at least partly of Jewish origin and may indeed have been, to some degree, practicing crypto-Jews. One of these, Francisco Gómez Robledo, after twice being inspected by the Inquisition’s surgeons, was judged to have been circumcised (pp. 158 – 59), a fact considered at the time to be certain evidence of his parents’ Jewish practices (though reading the text of the reports, any modern reader is bound to retain some doubt about whether the marks observed really were evidence of circumcision).No historian familiar with the history of New Spain will seriously question the conclusion that at least a few crypto-Judaizers made their way to New Mexico. Even so, most of the Inquisition material gathered against the suspects is hearsay evidence that the determined skeptic can readily enough disregard. The real question is whether or not there was anything more than a very sporadic individual presence of crypto-Jews. All things considered, Hordes makes as good a case as one can to support his proposal that crypto-Judaism had a long and continuous history in New Mexico, from the end of the sixteenth century to the beginning of the twenty-first, and that crypto-Judaism established deep roots in the region. Given the lively consciousness of a secret Jewish heritage prevalent among some New Mexican Hispanos that endures until today, it seems likely that, on the balance, Hordes is right. Even so, I must say that this reader, at least, was left at the end of his book with more than a shred of lingering doubt.