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The Great Conspiracy in New Spain*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Seymour B. Liebman
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Extract

In the introduction to his The Jews in the Canary Islands, Lucien Wolf wrote almost a half-century ago that “The work of the… branches of the Holy Office in America has only been made known to us piecemeal… For social data relating to the great body of Marranos the records have not hitherto been studied.” These records of the trial proceedings, called procesos, still constitute a fairly virgin field of social, religious and economic Latin American history in general and specifically for the history of Jews and Judaism.

A few have written articles about Mexican Jews in colonial times after a cursory study of a few documents and several acclaimed texts. It is, therefore, not surprising that the results are superficial and often suffused with errors. The foregoing may be illustrated by statements in an article published in the American Jewish Historical Quarterly. Among the numerous errors that appeared therein are “among 2,281 trials of the Mexican Holy Office, 351 concerned crypto-Jews…” and that “By the end of the seventeenth century, the whole crypto-Jewish community had been destroyed.”

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 30 , Issue 1 , July 1973 , pp. 18 - 31
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1973

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Footnotes

*

LiebmanSeymour B. is the author of Jews in New Spain; Faith, Flame atid the Inquisition (U. of Miami Press, 1970); The Enlightened: The Writings of Luis de Carvajal, el Mozo (U. of Miami Press, 1967) and numerous journal articles. He has taught at U. of the Americas, Florida Atlantic U., and is adjunct instructor at the U. of Miami. All translations are by this author.

References

1 Wiznitzer, Arnold, “ Crypto-Jews in Mexico during the Seventeenth Century,” American Jewish Historical Quarterly (hereafter AJHQ), vol. 40, June 1962, No. 4, p. 268.Google Scholar

2 Liebman, Seymour B., A Guide to Jewish Reref enees in the Mexican Colonial Era. (Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 1964).Google Scholar My research continued after publication and many procesos were found in Spain. Many procesos were stolen, lost, destroyed or otherwise pillaged during the nineteenth and this century. The procesos in Spain are really duplicate originals. The inquisition secretariat was supposed to forward to the Suprema in Madrid copies of all procesos in the vario Tribunals whether in Spain or the New World.

Since the completion of this article and its acceptance by the editor, two new books by Mr. Liebman have been accepted for publication and both are pertinent to the contents of the article. The U. of Miami Press will publish during the Winter of 1973–74, TheInquisitors and the Jews in the New World. This book will have some corrections of items in his Guide to Jewish References in the Mexican Colonial Era and many additional names, notes, andbibliographical and genealogical material. It will include the activities of the other Tribunals in the New World. The second book, The Great Auto de Fé of 1649, will appear under the colophon of Coronado Press also during the Winter 1973–74. This will include a translation of the relación of Mathias de Bocanegra, S. J., with notes, corrections and bibliographical sources for each of the 109 persons who who were participants as penitents in auto.

3 Wiznitzer, op. cit., p. 251.

4 Lea, Henry Charles, The Inquisition in the Spanish Dependencies. (N. Y., The Macmillan Co., 122), p. 219.Google Scholar

5 Ibid., p. 229.

6 Rueda, Julio Jiménez, Herejias y Supersticiones en la Nueva España. (Mexico, Imprenta Universitaria, 1946), p. 122 Google Scholar; Medina, José Toribio, Historia del Tribunal del Santo oficio de la Inquisición. (Mexico, Ediciones Fuentes Cultural, 1952), p. 189 Google Scholar; Obregón, Luis González, Rebeliones Indigenas y Precursores de la Independencia Mexicana. (Mexico, Ediciones Fuentes Cultural, 1952), p. 220 Google Scholar; Palacio, Vicente Riva, Mexico à Traves de los Siglos. (5 vols., Barcelona, ca. 1885), 2: chap. 12 and 14.Google Scholar

7 Jiménez Rueda, op. cit., p. 137.

8 Riva Palacio, op. cit., II: 703.

9 Jiménez Rueda, op. cit., p. 121.

10 Archivo General de la Nación, Ramo de laInquisición (hereafter AGN) tomo 426, fojas 534–557 vta.

11 McClaskey, Josephine Yocum, “ Inquisition Papers of Mexico II, The Trial of Luis de la Cruz,” Research Papers of the State College of Washington, vol. 15, March 1947, No. 1.Google Scholar

12 Lea, op. cit., p. 420, wrote “The conquest of Portugal in 1580 had led to a large emigration to Castile where Portuguese soon became synonymous with Judaizer.” Boxer, C. R. in Salvador de Sá and the Struggle for Brazil and Angola (London, U. of London, 1952, p. 72)Google Scholar wrote, “We have seen that the terms “Portuguese” and “Jew” were synonymous for many Spaniards ”; see also Cremieux, Adolphe, “ Pour Contribuer a l’histoire de l’Accession des Juifs,” Revue des Etudes Juives, vol. 95 (1933), 45, 46; and Machain, R. de la Fuente, Los Portugueses en Buenos Aires. (Madrid, C. de Real Academia Historia, 1931), p. 52.Google Scholar

13 González Obregón, op. cit., p. 222.

14 Ibid., p. 222.

15 Lea, op. cit., pp. 229, 234.

16 Medina, op. cit., pp. 210–212.

17 Liebman, Seymour B., Jews in New Spain; Faith, Flame and the Inquisition. (Uni-versity of Miami Press, 1970), pp. 130–135 and authorities cited.Google Scholar

18 Baroja, Julio Caro, Los Judíos en la España Moderna y Contemporanea (3 vols. Madrid, Ediciones Arion, 1961), 2, 336.Google Scholar

19 Herring, Hubert, A History of Latin America. (N. Y., Alfred A. Knopf, 1964), p. 224.Google Scholar

20 See proceso of Manuel Goméz Navarro, AGN 151, Expediente 6; for correspondence in 1621, see proceso of Manuel Díaz Enríquez, AGN 337, Expediente Guatemala 7.

21 Medina, José Toribio, Historia del Tribunal del Santo Oficio de la Inquisición de Lima. (2 vols Santiago, Fondo Historia y Bibliografico J. T. Medina, 1956), II, 145.Google Scholar

22 Palma, Ricardo, Tradiciones Peruanas. (Madrid, Aguilar, 1961), p. 1219.Google Scholar

23 Caro Baroja, op. cit., II, 341.

24 Lea, Henry C., A History of the Inquisition of Spain. (4 vols. N. Y., Macmillan Co., 1906), 3: 279, and Adler, Cyrus, “A Contemporary Memorial Relating to Damages to Spanish Interests in America Done by Jews of Holland,” AJHQ, vol. 17, 1909, p. 45.Google Scholar

25 AGN 400.

26 Palma, op. cit., p. 1218.

27 Herrera, Armando, “ Un Judío limeño del siglo XVII,” Judaica, No. 63, Sept. 1938, p. 85.Google Scholar

28 Baroja, Julio Caro, La Sociedad Cryptojudia en la Corte de Felipe IV. (Madrid, Imprenta y Editorial Maestre, 1963), p. 23.Google Scholar

29 See Liebman, op. cit., chapters 8, 10, 11 for many illustrations of Jewish practises in inquisition cells.

30 Caro B., La Sociedad, op. cit., p. 23.

31 Proceso of Manuel Alvarez de Arellano, AGN 405, Exp. 1, AGN 417, Exp. 16, AGN 453 f. 612.

32 Revah, I. S., “Les Marranes,” Revue des Etudes Juives, 3rd series, vol. 1 (old 118) 1959–1960, p. 50.Google Scholar

33 Proceso of Tomas Treviño de Sobremente, AGN 401, Exp. 3, and the Barker translation in the G. R. G. Conway Collection in the Archives of the Library of Congress.

34 AGN 157, Exp. 1.

35 González Obregón, op. cit., p. 209.

36 Ibid.

37 Ibid., p. 214.

38 AGN 416, Expediente 38.

39 Gonzáles Obregón, op. cit., p. 222.

40 Lea, op. cit., p. 347.

41 Medina, op. cit., pp. 226–242.

42 Report of the auction sales held in Mexico 1643–1647 (this writer’s title) Archivo Histórico Nacional de Madrid, Legajo 1737, Expdiente 5.

43 Lea, op. cit., p. 219 and p. 233 fn.

44 Haring, C. H., The Spanish Empire in America. (N. Y., Harcourt, Brace & World, 1963), p. 190.Google Scholar

45 Ibid.

46 Ibid., p. 191.

47 Gonzáles Obregón, op. cit., p. 224.

48 Ibid., pp. 225, 236.

49 Sluiter, Dutch,“ Dutch Maritime Power and the Colonial Status Quo”, Pacific Historical Review, vol. 11, March 1942, No. 1, p.35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

50 Liebman, op. cit., pp. 226–228.

51 Riva Palacio, op. cit., II: 703.

52 Ibid.

53 Proceso Gaspar de Robles, AGN 390, fs. 369“377 vta., and AGN 391, Exp. 1. The tomos should be read in reverse order since the earlier testimonyis in the second tomo.