![]() It is estimated that millions of Anusim throughout the New and Old Worlds––reportedly including such famous folk as actress Rita Moreno and Cuban dictator Fidel Castro––may be descended from Conversos. There are no conclusive numbers but it is reported that as recently as 80 years ago, a man was hung in Columbia for being a Jew. When the Catholic Church extended the Inquisition to the New World in 1572, converses faced continued discrimination. ![]() “Midway between Judaism and Christianity, Conversos also helped create the first maritime links between Europe and America.” Those who fled to the Americas went on to play important roles in commerce and the development of the New World. Others escaped to friendlier countries around the Mediterranean or to the New World. By the time Joseph Bonaparte abolished the Inquisition in 1808 an estimated 31,912 “heretics” had been burned at the stake, 17659 had been burned at effigy and, according to some reports nearly 300,000 forced to convert.Īs many as 200,000 Spanish Jews likely fled to nearby Portugal and other places of refuge only to be murdered when the Inquisition spread to that country, as portrayed in the popular work of fiction, Richard Zimler’s The last Kabbalist of Lisbon. In 1942, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain ordered all Jews to convert to Christianity or be banished from the kingdom. Once Conversos arrived in the New World it was easy to return to Judaism. Since then, Hispanics have been reliving this process again and again, sometimes with doubt cast over their claims. Melendrez’s experience is emblematic of a fascinating trend that has been at work since the 1970s, when ethnic pride “went public.” Stories of Latino grandmothers passing on the tradition of lighting Shabbat candles in the basement, or Chabad emissaries discovering candles lit in wine cellars in Spain, are among the most popular tales of hidden Jews.īeginning in the late 1970s and early 1980s descendants of Crypto-Jews in New Mexico began to explore and accept their past in an “open and public way,” according to sociologist Michael Caroll. “There were Melendez that were killed in the Mexican Inquisition,” she says, “and from what I understand Melendrez is the same family.” Based on that discovery, Karrie Melendrez began to consider she might really be of Jewish descent. Inspired by the synchronicity of her dream and the radio program, Melendrez spent a year methodically researching her family’s genealogy, learning that her surname resembles a popular Anusim name: Melendez. This was the first Melendrez had heard about Southwest Hispanos with reportedly Jewish roots. ![]() Quite a few settled in what is now New Mexico, where members of her family still reside. Melendrez learned that many converses fled to the New World under the threat of death or conversion only to be persecuted again during the Mexican Inquisition. “Anusim,” Hebrew for forced converts, is the most sympathetic term. The various names used describe the community have different connotations “Marrano,” Spanish for “pig,” is a derogatory term that has fallen out of use. Converso Jews also known as Marranos, Anusim or Crypto-Jews were forced to convert during the Spanish Inquisition. Her thoughts on the matter, however, began to change a week later when she heard a radio broadcast about “Conversos” and their descendants. Still, Melendrez sensibly assumed her dream was just a dream and went on with her day. Melendrez, a 34-year-old screenwriter living in Los Angeles, had never heard any Jewish element to that story, but she consistently felt drawn to Jewish friends and Jewish friends and Jewish culture, and was often mistaken for being Jewish. ![]() He fell in love with and married a Mexican woman and they settled in New Mexico. “I’d never heard of a Mexican Jew.” Her family background was already colorful enough: her great great grandfather had traveled to America from Spain with the circus. When Melendres awoke, she was struck by the strangeness of the idea that her family could be Jewish. “You mean you, me, Dad, Uncle Ricky?” “All of us are Jewish.” With that, Joseph disappeared. ![]() “We’re Jewish,” he explained. “What do you mean?” she asked. In the middle of the night, her paternal grandfather Joseph, a native of Mexico, came to her in a dream. Seven years ago Karrie Melendrez went to sleep thinking she was Christian. Jewish Again, Moment Magazine Cover Storyįirst Prize, AJPA Rockower Awards for Magazine Feature Writingįive hundred years after the Inquisition, the descendants of forced converts return to their roots. ![]()
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