Crypto-Jews in Mexico During The Seventeenth Century PDF

Crypto-Jews in Mexico during the Seventeenth Century
Author(s): Arnold Wiznitzer

Source: American Jewish Historical Quarterly , JUNE, 1962, Vol. 51, No. 4 (JUNE, 1962),
pp. 222-231, 233-268, 322
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23874312
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Crypto-Jews in Mexico
during the Seventeenth Century
By Arnold Wiznitzer
INTRODUCTION
The beginning of the seventeenth century found only a

Judaizers in the prison of the Holy Office in Mexico
trying these prisoners, the Inquisitors prepared a specta
da-fe for March 25, 1601. One hundred and twenty-thre
indicted for bigamy, blasphemy, witchcraft, Lutheranism
and other crimes appeared in the presence of seven hund
men, the Viceroy of New Spain, and the general populatio
City. Among the victims were thirty-nine accused of Jud
Twenty-one of the latter group were accused for the f
These showed repentance, asked for mercy, and abjured th
errors. As reconciliados they were accepted into the Cat
As a result, instead of being condemned to death they wer
to confiscation of their possessions .and to variable prison
pulsion from New Spain, public lashing, or galley slaver
the mercy conceded to the penitents by the Inquisition.
Among the reconciliados was Dona Ana de Leon Carv
teen-year-old unmarried sister of the martyr Luis de Ca
had been executed in 1596.1
Among the Judaizers condemned to death were the following:

1. Dona Maria Nunez de Carvajal, another unmarried sister of
Luis de Carvajal, reconciled in 1596, was again imprisoned on the
charge of having relapsed into Judaism. Because she expressed a wish
to die as a Catholic, she was executed by the garrote [strangulation],
1 Cf. Luis Gonzdlez Obreg6n, Mexico viejo (Mexico D.F. 1959), p. 686. Cf. Jos£
Toribio Medina, Historia del Tribunal del Santo Oficio de la Inquisicidn
en Mexico (Mexico D.F., 1952), p. 160.
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CRYPTO-JEWS IN MEXICO: 17th CENTURY
and her body was immediately afterward burned at the stake. She
was twenty-nine-years old.2
2. Thomas de Fonseca Castellanos, a native of Portugal, had come

to Mexico from Holland. He became a miner in Taxco. Accused of
relapsing into Judaism and condemned to death, because he showed
a slight intention to die as a Catholic he was garroted and afterward
burned.3
3. Francisco Rodriguez de Ledesma was accused of Judaizing and

condemned to death. At the reading of his sentence at the auto-da-fe
he asked for a new hearing and made some confessions. Consequently
his execution was suspended, and he was returned to his cell. He
died in prison, and his body was burned on April 20, 1603.4
Fifteen of the accused crypto-Jews had already left Mexico or had
died. Their effigies were burned on March 25, 1601, and the bodies of
those who had died in Mexico were exhumed and burned at the
same time.5
Another auto-da-fe was celebrated on April 20, 1603. At this, Juan

Nunez de Leon was executed by garrote, while Dona Clara Enriquez
and Rodrigo del Campo were reconciled.6 A sick old man, Antonio
Gomez, was condemned to death for Judaizing, but he confessed at
the last moment and was returned to prison for further investigation.
At the March 25, 1605, auto-da-fe he appeared as reconciled.7
Diego Dias Nieto, born in Oporto, Portugal, had lived for some
time in Ferrara, Italy, where Jews could openly profess their faith.
In 1596, he was imprisoned in Mexico City as the result of a denuncia
tion. He served one year in prison and was again imprisoned in 1601.
He told the strange story that he had come to Mexico with a Bulla
of Pope Clement VIII and with a royal license to collect alms. Being
very learned in Judaism, he was able to discuss Bible passages and
2L. G. Obreg6n, op. cit., p. 690; J. T. Medina, op. cit., pp. 160-161. For the
garrote the condemned was placed with his back to a wooden pillar, his
neck tied to the pillar (stake) with a thick cord on which an iron tourniquet
was twisted, to strangle the condemned gradually. Cf. D. J. Garcia Icazbalceta,
Obras, vol. I (Mexico, 1896), chapter "Autos da F6 celebrados in Mexico,"
pp. 271-316.
3 L. G. Obreg6n, op. cit., p. 689; J. T. Medina, op. cit., p. 160.
4 J. T. Medina, op. cit., pp. 161, 162, 171; L. G. Obreg6n, op. cit., p. 690.
5 Ibid.
6 J. T. Medina, op. cit., p. 171. Juan Nunez de Leon is not mentioned in
Obreg<3n's list.
1 J. T. Medina, op. cit., p. 171; L. G. Obreg6n, op. cit., p. 691.
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AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
their interpretations with the scholarly clergymen. He appeared as

reconciled during the auto-da-fe of March 25, 1605.8
Spain had been left virtually bankrupt at the death of Philip II
in 1598. Portugal had been under Spanish rule since 1580 and, in
1605, rich Portuguese New Christians succeeded in buying from King
Philip III a General Pardon for Judaizers of Portugese descent at
tha.t time indicted or imprisoned by the Holy Office in Spain, Portugal,
or the Colonies. For this they paid 2,925,000 cruzados. The king's
patent was dated February 1, 1605. When it reached Mexico, the only
Judaizer in prison was Francisco Lopez Enriquez, and he was set
free.9
As a consequence of the trials of 1590, 1596, and 1601, Mexican

Judaizers were ruined financially, imprisoned, expelled, or killed. The
remnants certainly exercised caution in their observation of Jewish
rites. During the subsequent thirty years only nine Judaizers were
accused at autos-da-fe. Seven of them were reconciled and two were
accused in absentia.10 At the April 12, 1635, auto-da-fe twelve Ju
daizers appeared as reconciled and two were in absentia.11 And in
the year 1638 one person was reconciled.12
The tapering off of persecutions in Mexico and the economic
prospects of the silver rush encouraged many Judaizers to migrate
to Mexico from 1606 to 1642. They were active in business, and
some became very wealthy. The Holy Office, seeking an opportunity
to fill its coffers, in 1642 created such an occasion.
One day a priest reported that his two servants had overheard in
the streets of Mexico City a conversation to the effect that certain
Portuguese intended to set the Inquisition buildings on fire. Immediate
ly a guard was placed around those buildings and an order was issued
that no Portuguese should be allowed to embark at the Port of
Vera Cruz.
The moment for the attack on the Portuguese was carefully chosen.
Two years earlier Portugal had regained her independence and had
crowned the Duke of Braganza as King John IV.
Portuguese all over the world, including Judaizers, were in sympathy
with Portugal and thus were considered enemies of Spain.
8 J. T. Medina, op. cit., p. 173.
9 Ibid., pp. 112, 174.
10 L. G. Obreg6n, op. cit., p. 691; J. T. Medina, op. cit., pp. 170-176.
11L. G. Obreg6n, op. cit., pp. 692-693; J. T. Medina, op. cit., pp. 184-185.
12 Ibid., p. 186.
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On July 13, 1642, the Mexican Holy Office started a new campaign
to exterminate the Judaizers by imprisoning forty of them. This move
made a great stir all over Mexico, with the general population
discussing the country's concern over the problem of the "perfidious
Hebrews." The Holy Office had to arrange for additional space when,
in a short time, more than a hundred and fifty prisoners were ap
prehended. Altogether, two hundred and sixteen Judaizers were
tried, some in prison and others absent by death or flight. Between
1646 and 1649, several autos-da-fe were held. The last one, celebrated
on April 11, 1649, was called the "Big One" [el auto grande].
On that occasion sixty-seven, who had either escaped in time or
had died outside of Mexico, were burned in effigy. The bodies
of those who had died in Mexico were exhumed and burned.
One "hundred and thirty-five of the accused were reconciliados who
were punished in the manner explained above.
Fourteen Judaizers were accused of being relapsed heretics, and
these perished as martyrs. One of them was burned alive, and
thirteen died by the garrote. Here is a report of the fourteen trials,
based on the accounts \relaciones del auto-da-fe] published under
the auspices of the Holy Office in Mexico, on manuscripts and on
other printed sources, which give an insight into social, economic, and
religious conditions of the Judaizers of that time.13
1. Dona Ana de Leon Carvajal was a daughter of Francisco Ro

driguez de Mattos and Dona Francisca Nunez de Carvajal, a sister
of the martyr Luis de Carvajal. In 1601, at the age of nineteen, she
had been reconciled. A widow of Cristobal Miguel, she was very
religious, observed holy days and fast days, prayed unceasingly, and
was known among fellow Judaizers as a Santa [saint]. Even in prison
she was heard to pray, repeating the word Adonai. She denied all
accusations and did not denounce anybody. As the last survivor of
the Carvajal family, at the age of sixty-seven she was garroted and
her body afterward burned at the stake.
13 The sources are Relation sumaria del Auto particular de Fee... Ano de
1646. Reprinted in Genaro Garcia y Carlos Pereyra, "Docuraentos in£ditos
o muy raros para la Historia de Mexico," vol. XXVIII, p. 94; Breve y
Sumaria Relation de un Auto particular Mexico, 1647. Reprinted in
"Documentos incditos," vol. XXVIII, pp. 95-132; Relation del Tercero Auto
Particular de Fee... treinta del mes de Marzo de 1648 (Mexico, 1648). Re
printed in "Documentos incditos," vol. XXVIII, pp. 133-269, also in Museo
Mexicano, tomo I, pp. 387 ff. (Mexico, 1943); Auto General de la Fee, Cele
brado... en la Ciudad de Mexico... 11 de Abril, 1649 (Mexico, 1649).
Cf. also Obreg<5n, op. cit., pp. 693-709, and J. T. Medina, op. tit., pp. 111
120 and pp. 189-208.
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2. Francisco Lopez Blandon (alias Ferrasas) was born in 1619,

son of Dona Leonor Nunez, and became a goldsmith in Mexico.
Having been reconciled in 1635, he was subsequently imprisoned again
on the charge of Judaizing. Blandon belonged to a family of well
known Judaizers and was a brother-in-law of Thomas Trebino de
Sobremonte. He was specifically accused of having circumcised his
little son born of a mulatto mother. Even in prison he was seen praying
on his knees and fasting. He did not admit anything, nor did he
denounce anybody during his trial. He was executed by garrote and
later his body was burned at the stake.
3. Gonzalo Flores (alias Gonzales Vaez Mendez) was born in 1605
in La Torre de Moncorbo, Portugal, and was given the Hebrew
name of Samuel. In Mexico he was a merchant. During his three
years in prison, he consistently denied that he was a Judaizer, but
later admitted it. Gonzalo behaved like an insane person, but during
his incarceration in an asylum the doctors declared he was completely
sane and responsible. He was executed by garrote and his body was
burned at the stake.
4. Ana Gomez, born in Madrid in 1606, was a daughter of Leonor

Nunez and Diego Fernando Cardado, a descendant of a family of
martyrs. While in prison she often claimed that she wished to die as
a martyr of the Jewish faith. She was executed by strangulation and
her body was burned at the stake.
5. Maria Gomez, born in Madrid in 1617, was a sister of Ana
Gomez and was married to Thomas Trebino de Sobremonte. Having
been reconciled in 1625, she was this time condemned for relapsing
in Judaism. She was executed by strangulation, and her body was
burned at the stake on the same day as her mother, Leonor Gomez
Nunez, her sister Ana, and her husband Sobremonte were similarly
executed.
6. Duarte de Leon Jaramillo, a businessman in Mexico, born in

1596 at Casteloblanco, Portugal, was the husband of Isabel Nunez.
The Inquisition had always shadowed him. First imprisoned in 1628,
his trial was suspended. In 1635 he was reconciled to Catholicism
and later imprisoned again as a relapsed Judaizer because he had
instructed his three sons, Francisco de Leon Jamarillo, Simon de
Leon, Iorge Duarte (alias Iorge de Leon), and his three daughters,
Clara Nunez, Antonia Nunez, and Ana Nunez, in the observation
of the Jewish rites. He was known to have been very severe with his
children. It was claimed that he had beaten them whenever he heard
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them pray to the Holy Virgin Maria but to have treated them well
from the moment they began to Judaize. He circumcised his son,
Francisco de Leon. During the hearings his imprisoned daughters
testified that he had performed a small operation on them when he
initiated them into Judaism: He cut a piece of flesh from the left
shoulder of each, roasted it, and ate it. The Tribunal accepted this
fantastic story as an example of Jewish cannibalism. Padre Mathias
de Bocanegra, who wrote the published report of the auto-da-fe,
decided that this was a newly revealed method of circumcision and
called Jamarillo "the inhuman Jew." His children further deposed
that Jamarillo had often fasted in penance for having broken his vow
to migrate to a country where Jews could freely practice their religion.
They declared that on Friday evenings he and his wife and many
other Jews locked themselves in a warehouse where they uttered
shouts of joy. Jamarillo did not confess to anything, and at the
auto-da-fe of April 11, 1649, he was condemned to death. He was
executed by garrote and on the same day his body was burned at
the stake.
7. Simon Montero, born in 1600 in Casteloblanco, Portugal, was

a businessman and was married in Seville to Dona Elena Montero.
Before migrating to Mexico, he visited Jewish communities in France,
Rome, Livorno, and Pisa, studying to be a rabbi and teacher of
dogma. In Mexico, he was seen to pray with other Judaizers while
wearing "tunicas judaicas con sus cucuruchos en las Cabezas" [prayer
shawl and phylacteries]. He was first imprisoned in 1635 as the
result of a denunciation, on a charge that he had tried to buy a
fresh grave for one of his friends. He denied everything when under
torture and was set free. Again imprisoned and tried, he was con
demned to death. During the auto of April 11, 1649, he was executed
by garrote and his body was burned at the stake.
8. Leonor Gomez Nunez, born in Madrid in 1585, was the daughter
of Gaspar Fernandes of Portugal. She was married three times. Her
first husband was Fernando Cardado, and the children of this mar
riage were Ana Gomez and Isabel Nunez. Her second husband was
Pedro Lopez (alias Simon Fernandez), and the children of this mar
riage were Francisco Lopez Blandon and Maria Gomez (wife of
Sobremonte). Her third husband was Francisco Nieto. Leonor Gomez
Nunez was a devoted Jewess and instructed her children accordingly.
9. Simon Rodriguez Nunez, born in Portugal, had come to Mexico
from Seville. He was accused of relapsing into Judaism and appeared
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at the auto of January 23, 1647, and was c6ndemned to death. He

was executed the following day, by being first garroted and then
burned at the stake.
10. Dona Catalina de Silva (alias Enriquez) was born in Seville in

1601. She was the wife of Diego Tinoco and sister of Antonio Rodri
gues Arias and Blanca Enriquez, all of whom were tried by the In
quisition. She practiced Jewish rites and taught her children, Pedro
and Isabel Tinoco, their observance. In Church, she was in the habit
of covering her face with a handkerchef in order to avoid seeing the
host and the chalice. In prison she fasted regularly and did not confess
anything and did not ask for mercy. On April 11, 1649, she appeared
at the auto-da-fe as condemned. On the insistence of her children
she asked for mercy at the last moment. Because of this she was
executed by garrote, and her body was burned at the stake.
11. Isabel Tristan, born in Seville in 1599, was the daughter of
Simon Lopez, a Portuguese, and married to her uncle, Luis Fernandez
Tristan. She was a pious Jewess and was accused of having invited
other Judaizers to spend Jewish fast days in her home, where she
served them appropriate meals at the completion of the fast. She
appeared at the April 11, 1649, auto-da-fe as condemned and was
executed the same day by garrote, and her body was burned at the
stake.
12. Antonio Vaez (alias Tirado, also called Captain de Castelo

blanco) was born in Portugal in 1574, a brother of the famous
Judaizer Simon Vaez Sevilla. In 1625, Antonio appeared for the first
time at an auto in Mexico and was reconciled to Catholicism. He
boasted that he had not denounced anybody. Immediately after his
liberation, he resumed the practice of Judaism and also instructed
other New Christians in Judaism at the home of his brother Simon.
Antonio told people that he was a descendant of the priestly tribe of
Levi. Before couples went to their weddings in the Church, he married
them at home in conformity with Jewish custom. He was often asked
to visit the sick, when he would lay hands on the ailing part of the
body, praying to Adonai Sabaot. Many of those whom he instructed
in Judaism were invited to participate in the Seder [home service on
Passover eve] in his house and to partake of the Passover meal of
lamb and mazzot [unleavened bread]. In 1640, he disagreed with
Sobremonte concerning the exact date of Yom Kippur—as to whether
the Judaizers in Mexico should fast during one week or another.
While in prison, in 1625, he had circumcised Sobremonte. When the
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wave of arrests began in 1642 Antonio Vaez admonished his friends

to confess to nothing and to denounce no one. During his own trial
he behaved accordingly. Called by Padre Bocanegra "the priest of
the Jews in this part of the Kingdom," he appeared at the April 11,
1649, auto-da-fe and was condemned. He was garroted and his body
was burned at the stake.
13. Gonzalo Vaez was born in 1602 at Casteloblanco, Portugal. He

was a traveling salesman in the interior of Mexico. He was related
as a nephew or cousin to most of the Judaizers in Mexico. Imprisoned
and accused of practicing and propagating Judaism, he first admitted
everything but later recanted. He also simulated insanity, but the
doctors declared him responsible. On April 11, 1649, he appeared at
the auto-da-fe, was condemned and, on the same day, was garroted,
and his body was burned at the stake.
All these thirteen martyrs had practiced and propagated Judaism
in Mexico knowing well the risk involved. As courageous and as
strong as some of them were during the torturing by the Inquisition,
they could not face being burned alive. That is the reason they
appeared in the autos-da-fe procession carrying a green cross, agreeing
to say a paternoster or to kiss a crucifix, sometimes at the last moment,
and thereby were executed through strangulation, with their bodies
being burned immediately afterward.
II
THOMAS TREBINO DE SOBREMONTE
Sobremonte was arrested by the Inquisition for the first tim

March 1, 1624, and removed from Antequera, Mexico, to M
City on November 23, 1624.14 During his hearings he vouchsaf
following biographical details.
14 The manuscripts of the Sobremonte trials (1625 and 1649) are fo

the Archivo General de la Nation in Mexico City, vol. 1495. Photocop
Sobremonte's signature and the sentences of the ecclesiastical and
authorities have been obtained. The complete trials have been publis
the original Spanish in Boletin del Archivo General de la Nacidn,
(Mexico City, 1935), pp. 99-148, 305-308, 420-464 and 578-620; vol
(Mexico City, 1936), pp. 88-142, 757-777; vol. VIII (Mexico City, 193
1-172. There exists an English translation of the trials in the Library
Cambridge University, England. Cf. J. Street, "The G. R. G. Collection
Cambridge University Library: A Checklist," in the Hispanic Ame
Historical Review, vol. XXXVII, no. 1, February, 1957, pp. 60-82.
[229

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He was born in the town of Medina de Rioseco in Castile, Spain.

At the death of his father, Antonio, his mother, Dona Leonor Martinez
de Villagomez, as he was told, was imprisoned by the Holy Office in
Valladolid and died there. His brother Francisco was in Peru and his
brother Jeronimo in Valladolid. His ancestors on his father's side had
been Old Christians and noblemen [hidalgos]: De Sobremontes. He
himself was baptized at birth and confirmed at the age of seven
or eight.
Sobremonte correctly recited the paternoster and other Catholic
prayers.15 He knew how to read and write in his own language and
in Latin because he had attended the College of the Jesuits in Valencia,
Spain, for one year and had studied canonical law at the University
of Salamanca. He was appointed page of Don Rodrigo Enriquez
de Mendoza in Medina de Rioseco. One day another page in the same
service called him "Jew" and in anger Sobremonte killed him. Be
cause of this he went into hiding in a neighboring convent and
changed his name to Jeronimo de Represa. In the year 1612, he
sailed from Cadiz to Mexico and settled as a trader in the town of
Guaxaca.
Accused by the Inquisitors of being a Judaizer, Sobremonte averred

that when he was about fourteen years old his mother explained to
him that Christians adore figures of wood and metal, while Jews
adore Adonai who gave the true law to Moses in the desert; that in
order to obtain salvation (deliverance from sin and eternal damnation)
he would have to believe in Adonai, the God of the Jews. Under this
influence he accepted Adonai and the Law of Moses.
His mother had instructed him to keep his Judaism secret in order
not to endanger their lives. She taught him several prayers but did
not allow him to write them down. In broken Hebrew he recited:
Sema, Adonai, Beruto, Ceolan, Banel [obviously the Shema

prayer: "Shema Israel Adonai Elohenu Adonai Ehad. Baruch
Shem Kevod Malchuto leolam Vaed"].
He further quoted a prayer which started with the defective Hebrew

words:
Binuam, Adonai, Maciadeno, [continuing in Spanish: ] debajo

o a sombra del abastado me adormezo, debajo, o so tu alias
15 The Court usually examined the accused Judaizers, asking them to recite
the Paternoster, Ave Maria, Credo y Salve, and the Doctrina. Cf. Nicolas
Lopez Martinez, Los Judaizantes Castellanos y la Inquisicidn en Tiempo de
Isabel la Catdlica (Burgos, 1954), p. 327.
230]

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jut ^
®*q»ariille.
**)SeLLO OVARTO, VN QVARTlLfcO,

(MA^OS DEMI L YSI^SCIENTOS YQV A
^ REMTA YSIETE , TQVARENTA^O
e&?rnf$v?>?■ 'ffl
THOMAS TREMINO [TREBINO] DE SOBREMONTE IS SENTENCED TO

BE BURNED ALIVE [Quemado vivo]
[From the original manuscript of the trial, Volume 1495, in the
Archivo General de la Nacidn, Mexico City]

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sede alumbrado y enderezado a tu servicio, no temere, el

pavor de la noche, y asi mismo decia, Adarja y escudo, y
tambien no llegara a ti malicia, ni llaga que tralla dice en
la prea de tu mano.16
Sobremonte then went on to explain that his mother had owned

a notebook entitled "Los Siete Salmos Penitenciales" [the Seven Peni
tential Psalms] including psalms in her own handwriting. On the day
before Yom Kippur the whole family assembled, took baths, and put
on fresh linen, and ate fish. The same evening all prayed together
while standing until two in the morning, and they also discussed the
Law of Moses. They fasted a day and a night, then dined on fishmeal.
Sobremonte confessed that one day while on a business trip in
Rio Hondo, Mexico, he had behaved dishonestly [deshonesto] with
an Indian girl named Juana. When he returned to Rio Hondo a year
and a half later he was told that Juana was the mother of twins, but
he was not sure whether he was their father. He also admitted
having had intercourse with Dona Luisa de Bilona, the wife of Don
Alonso de Carriage. She too became pregnant and could not abort
the child.
During renewed interrogations about his mother's teachings, Sobre

monte deposed that the family rested on Shabbat [the Jewish Sabbath]
but sometimes had to eat pork in order not to attract attention. He
was taught to wash his hands before each meal and to pray:
Bendito sea el Poderoso Adonai, que en las enseiianzas me

ensenaste el lavar de las manos, boca y ojos te alabrar y
servir en loor y honra del Senor y en la Ley de Moisen
[Blessed be the Almighty Adonai, who taught me in his teach
ings to wash hands, mouth, and eyes in order to glorify and
serve in praise and honor of the Lord and the Law of
Moses] .17
Sobremonte told the Court that he relented of having followed his

mother's instructions and was willing to return to Catholicism. Even
so, on February 1, 1625, the Promoter Fiscal [Ecclesiastic Attorney
General] demanded capital punishment for him. The Court con
demned him to appear at the March 25th auto-da-fe as a reconciled
Catholic wearing the sambenito [penitential garment]. He was also
sentenced to one year in prison and to confiscation of all his belongings.
io Cf. Boletin mentioned above, vol. VI, pp. 426-427.

it Ibid., p. 435.
[233

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Besides, he was required to assist every Sunday and on holy days at

High Mass and to attend the sermons in the Convent of the Dominican
friars.
How serious Sobremonte's repentance was can be learned from

subsequent events. On November 29, 1624, complying with his request,
the Court assigned him a cell mate. This companion was Antonio
Vaez, who circumcised Sobremonte during his incarceration in the
prison cell.
After his first condemnation, Sobremonte became seriously ill in the
damp cell and was transferred to the hospital for paupers, where he
was detained for four months. He was set free on June 16, 1626. He
then resumed his business and was successful.
On June 20, 1629, he was again denounced to the Inquisitors by

the Attorney General because he was seen horseback riding, publicly
wearing arms, and dressed in silk and fine clothes—conduct as such
was forbidden to persons reconciled by the Tribunals of the Holy
Office. On July 16, 1629, several witnesses confirmed the denuncia
tion. On February 26, 1630, a member of the Holy Office deposed
that he had seen Sobremonte elegantly dressed and wearing a sword.
Despite all this, Sobremonte was not imprisoned; however, he was
frightened. In 1633, he wrote to the Holy Office offering one hundred
pesos as a voluntary fine for delaying to present his rehabilitation
document dated May 6, 1631, in Madrid, and signed by the Cardinal
and General Inquisitor of Spain, Don Antonio Zapata. According to
this document Sobremonte was entitled to wear arms and expensive
clothes, to ride a horse, and to enjoy other privileges usually forbidden
to the reconciliados. Inquisitors everywhere were expected to respect
this Royal Decree. On April 23, 1633, the Inquisitors in Mexico
acquiesced to this document and accepted the one hundred pesos
offered by Sobremonte, and decided to use the money for repairs on
the Holy Office's building.
Sobremonte was then left in peace by the Inquisition until 1644.
Then the Attorney General denounced him on the ground that, since
his reconciliation in 1625, he had been practicing Judaism. Informa
tion had been obtained that Sobremonte intended to sail from Acapulco
to the Philippines, from where it would be easy for him to escape to
Portuguese India. Consequently, Sobremonte was imprisoned again on
October 11, 1644.
At his hearing on November 11, 1644, he deposed that the name
of his grandfather was Pedro de Sobremonte, and that the name of
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his grandmother was Maria Garcia Tremino. One year after his
reconciliation, in 1626, he had married Dona Maria Gomez, the
daughter of Leonor Nunez and Pedro Lopez. By 1644, he had five
children: Rafael, Leonor, Micaela, Gabriel, and Salvador, their ages
ranging from one and a half month to thirteen years. One son,
Antonio, had died. From 1626 to 1632, he had lived in Guadalajara,
and, since 1632, in Mexico City. He was a businessman and often
traveled to Acapulco, Vera Cruz, Zacatecas, and Guadalajara.
Sobremonte did not confess to anything and did not denounce any
body, but many witnesses testified against him. Dona Margarita de
Rivera told the Inquisitors about his 1624 circumcision by his cell
mate, Antonio Vaez. Four surgeons examined him and verified signs
of circumcision. Rafael Sobremonte, his son, told the Inquisitors that
his father had instructed him in Judaism, first telling him that all the
Christians believed was nonsense [pat ar at a], that God has no mother,
and that they adored wooden images painted as saints. He was taught
to believe in One God. who had created heaven and earth. They fasted
every Thursday and his father once struck him when he was caught
eating on a Thursday. He stated also that his father circumcised him
when he was about thirteen years old and taught him to pray daily
upon awakening as follows:
Bendita sea la luz del dia, y el Senor que nos lo envia. Alabad
al Senor todas las gentes; Alabad al Senor todos los pueblos.
Porque ha confrmado sobre nosotros, y la verdad del Senor
permanecera para siempre. [Blessed be the light of the day
and the Lord who sends it out. All peoples praise the Lord,
all nations praise the Lord, because he has supported us. And
the truth of the Lord remains forever.]18
Many witnesses claimed that when Sobremonte married Maria

Gomez, he celebrated the marriage in conformity with Jewish customs;
that he and his family endeavored to eat kasher in accordance with
Jewish dietary laws; that he recited psalms in Latin while his head
was covered with a cap [montera']; that the crypto-Jewish com
munity in Mexico considered him as a clergyman-rabbi [sacerdote
rabino]; that he calculated the dates of holy days and fast days in
conformity with the Jewish calendar; that in the year 1640 he had
a long discussion with Antonio Vaez concerning the date of Yom
Kippur [because an error had been made in observing the appearance
of the new moon] as to whether the fast day that year was one week
18 Ibid., vol. VIII, p. 41.
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earlier or later; that he and his family in that year fasted for eight
days in order not to miss the day of Atonement;19 that he prayed
three times a day and sometimes even at midnight—always with his
head covered and a towel tied to the cap for drying his hands after
washing; that his family attended Mass and made confession in the
Church only to deceive neighbors and authorities, but whenever they
did so they fasted previously at home and knelt to ask God to forgive
them for this sin.
Other witnesses testified concerning the wealth of Sobremonte,

claiming that he had buried a few thousand pesos just before his
trial in 1624; that he had always planned to take his family to
Flanders, where they could live freely as professing Jews; that he had
even made a vow to do so and that as long as he did not fulfill this
vow he punished himself by regularly fasting twice a week.
Sobremonte denied everything that he was accused of during this
second trial. Orally and in writing he protested that the depositions
of his son Rafael and all the other witnesses were pure inventions,
especially accusing Margarita de Rivera of having a treacherous
tongue. The trial continued for five years. Sobremonte often fasted
in prison, and he became emaciated. On February 21, 1649, the
Tribunal condemned him to capital punishment.20 He was required
to appear at the auto-da-fe of April 11, 1649, to be burned alive at
the stake. -
The evening before that auto-da-fe, on April 10, 1649, Sobremonte

was visited in his cell by three clergymen who tried to convert him to
Catholicism before his death. One of them, Licenciado Francisco
Corchero Correno, wrote a report covering the twenty-four hours spent
with Sobremonte, and this report, attached to the trial manuscript,
was dated April 17th [six days after the execution]. It relates that
Correno and the padres Master Fr. Lorenzo Macdonald and Fr.
Miguel de Leon, both Dominicans, were chosen to assist Sobremonte
during his last twenty-four hours; that they admonished him to prepare
himself to die as a Catholic; that Sobremonte became terribly irritated
and, when he was asked to kiss a crucifix, he turned his face away
and started to blaspheme Christianity, declaring that he was a Jew
and wished to die as a Jew. The. three clergymen tried all night to
convert him, arguing without success. At five A.M., the time to
leave the prison for the auto-da-fe procession, Sobremonte told his
i# Ibid., vol. VII, p. 128.

20 See photograph on p. 230.
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visitors that they should convert themselves to Judaism, because his

God was the true one. Moreover, they asserted:
No solo ya se contentaba esta bestia con confesar su muerta

Ley de Moises, pero su descaro llego a que decia a voces
que la siguiesemos porque su dios era el verdadero. [This
beast was not satisfied to confess his dead Law of Moses, but
his impudence reached the point of screaming that we should
follow his God because he was the true one.]
During the procession to the plaza where the auto-da-fe was to be

celebrated, Sobremonte was accompanied by the three clergymen who
continued to plead with him for a last-minute conversion. The masses
on the streets, says Correno—men, women, and children—begged
Sobremonte "with Christian piety," while they were crying aloud and
reciting the Credo and other prayers, to accept Catholicism before
his execution.
When Sobremonte arrived on the stage of the auto-da-fe, priests

of all orders tried to persuade him. Though he had been fasting for
four days, he refused the food and drink offered him. Correno ex
plained chapter 9 of Daniel to him, in which the appearance of a
Messiah was prophesied, and showed him several other Bible passages.
Finally Sobremonte answered:
Do not exert yourself to convince me, for I must die as a
Jew. It would be better to convert yourself to Judaism.
Because of the blasphemies Sobremonte had uttered, he was gagged.

When other condemned Judaizers were brought upon the stage,
Sobremonte tried to give them signs with his eyes that they should
remain firm and die as Jews. When his mother-in-law, Leonor Gomez
Nunez, her daughter Maria Gomez [Sobremonte's wife], and her
other daughter, Ana Gomez, all condemned to death, appeared on
the stage, Sobremonte [obviously not gagged at that time] said:
Remember the mother of the Maccabeans!
When his sentence was read he said that he believed only in the God
of Israel. ("Como si nosotros lo negaramos" [as if we others would
deny him], adds Correno.)
After Sobremonte was declared relajado and released to the civil
authorities for punishment, Correno accompanied him to the stage
where General Don Jeronimo de Banuelos, Corregidor of Mexico
City, was performing his duties. This official condemned all other
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relajados to be garroted and burned after death. Only Thomas Tre

bino de Sobremonte was condemned to be burned alive.
Following the other relajados who had to ride on pack animals

through the streets of Mexico City from the stage of the auto-da-fe
to the square selected for the burning, Sobremonte (the "perfidious")
tried to mount a mule. But the mule, otherwise docile, refused to let
him mount, leaping and jerking. Other mules acted in the same way.
Finally Sobremonte was put on a mule with an Indian behind him to
keep him in the saddle. During this ride even, the Indian tried to
persuade Sobremonte to accept Catholicism.
The public on the streets along the way to the Quemadero was
inflamed against Sobremonte and would have lynched him many
times [muchas veces], says Correno, if he had not intervened, expect
ing that Sobremonte would show some sign of repentance at the last
moment.
When Sobremonte was tied to the stake, the clergymen who sur
rounded him and also the public made continuous exhortations. When
he was set on fire the clergymen begged him to make some sign of
accepting Christianity (since this would have still saved him from
being burned alive). But brave Sobremonte, not surrendering, asked
in a loud voice that they should finish burning him. The report
concludes:
Irritados los soldados, sacaron las espadas y dandole muchos

golpes y los verdugos soplando el fuego y echando de abajo
los hombres, mujeres y muchachos, la lefia, tnuriS entre las
llamas, empezando a sentir su maldito cuerpo el fuego que
su descomulgada alma estea y estara sintiendo en el infierno.
[The soldiers, irritated, drew their swords and gave him
many blows while the executioners fanned the fire and men,
women and children threw the wood into the burning flames,
and his cursed body began to feel the fire which his excom
municated soul is feeling and will feel in hell.]21
In Mexico City, the Quemadero [the burning place], in 1649, was

situated in front of the still existing building of the Convent of San
Diego [to the west of the Alemada passageway], on a plaza then
called Tianguis de San Hipolito [Saint Hippolyte market square].
Besides the report by Correno there is a description of Sobremonte's
execution in the booklet printed in Mexico City in 1649 covering that
April 11th auto-da-fe. It explains that Sobremonte's neck and hands
21 Ibid., vol. VIII, pp. 154-158.
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were tied to the stake before the burning began. Everybody hoped
that, when he saw the other thirteen executed by strangulation and
later burning, he would become frightened and say something that
would cause him to die as a Christian and save himself from being
burned alive.22 The semi-official narrative closes with the statement
that the following day at noon the flames were still burning. The
Corregidor ordered that the ashes be assembled in carts and thrown
into a canal behind the San Diego Convent.23
In none of the seventeenth century manuscripts or printed docu
ments is there any trace of the claim that Sobremonte at the last
moment with his feet drew the burning coals toward his body ex
claiming :
Echen Una, que mi dinero me cuesta [Throw in wood; I pay

for it anyway] ,24
The Mexico City house where Sobremonte had lived could still be
seen at the end of the nineteenth century and was shown as "La Casa
del Judio" [the Jew's house].25
Ill
OTHER INTERESTING VICTIMS OF THE AUTOS-DA-FE CELEBRATED

IN THE YEARS 1646 TO 1649
Besides the fourteen crypto-Jews who were burned at the stake

there were, as mentioned earlier, hundreds of accused Judaizers who
were reconciled during the autos-da-fe of the years 1646, 1647, 1648,
and 1649. Of these, we shall here discuss the most interesting trials.
22 Don Gregorio Martin de Guijo, "Diario de Sucesos Notables" (1648-1664),

in Documentos para la Historia de Mixico, vol. I (Mexico, 1863). He calls
Sobremonte: Tom is Tremino de Campos.
23 L. G. Obreg6n, op. cit., p. 246. "The victim, almost suffocated, but without
heaving a scream, or a sigh, or the slightest complaint, contented himself
to exclaim remembering his confiscated fortune and drawing with his feet
the burning coal (Echen lefia, que mi dinero me cuesta)." Obreg6n's un
verified story was repeated but not quoted in Cecil Roth's account that
Sobremonte's last audible words were, "Pile on the wood! How much money
it costs me!" See A History of the Marranos (Philadelphia, 1947), p. 163.
It was also repeated in Dr. George Alexander Kohut's statement that Sobre
monte exclaimed amid the flames, "That's right—burn wood, pile it thick
and fast; it costs you nothing; the fire is built with my money," see PAJHS,
vol. XI, pp. 179, "Trial of Pedro Arias Maldonado."
24 De Guijo, Diario de Sucesos Notables, op. cit.
25 Cf. photo of the house in L. G. Obreg6n, op. cit., p. 243, and in D. Vicente
Riva Palacio, Mexico a traves de los Siglos (Barcelona), vol. II, p. 425.
[239

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Esperanza Rodrigues, a mulatto woman, born in Seville, Spain, in

1582, was the daughter of the Negro, Isabel, of Guinea, Africa, and
the New Christian, Francisco Rodrigues. She married a German
sculptor by the name of Juan Francisco del Bosque, and bore him
three daughters: Maria Rodrigues del Bosque, Isabel Rodrigues del
Bosque, and Juana Rodrigues del Bosque, the last marrying the Portu
guese Judaizer, Bias Lopez. The mother and the three daughters
admitted Judaizing and asked for mercy. They were reconciled to
Catholicism during the auto-da-fe of April 16, 1646.26
Manuel Carrasco, a native of Villa Flor, Portugal, at this time
twenty-six years old, was the manager of a sugar storehouse in Valle
das Amilpas. He was accustomed to wearing in a bag on his chest
a piece of mazzah [unleavened bread] as a relic brought from a seder
in Madrid. He used it as a remedy for sick people. He was reconciled
to Catholicism in 1646.27
Captain Francisco Gomez Tejoso Tristan, a fifty-eight-year-old

bachelor, born in Valencia del Cid, Spain, and circumcised, captain
of infantry in Vera Cruz, son of Pedro Gomez Tejoso Tristan of
Lisbon, averred that his grandfather on his mother's side had been
baptized in order to avoid persecution. Being very sad \triste~\ because
of that, he adopted the name Tristan, which all his descendants used.
Tejoso was reconciled in 1646.28
Rafael and Gabriel Granada were the sons of Manuel de Granada
and Dona Maria de Rivera. They testified that their mother had
instructed them in Judaism when they were thirteen years old. Fast
days were observed in their home, and after fasting they ate eggs,
fish and vegetables. Gabriel told the court that it was the custom
to put some grains of seed pearls into the mouth of a deceased person.
His aunt Margarita de Rivera spoke about the "Virgin and her son"
with contempt and confided to him that she used to lash a crucifix.
While Gabriel was in prison he was visited by five surgeons who, in
the presence of an officer of the court and a jailor, separately exa
mined him to see if he had been circumcised. They found signs of
circumcision. Both brothers showed repentance, asked for mercy, and
became reconciled to Catholicism in 1646. In the sentence, the court
26 Genaro Garcia, Documentos iniditos, op. cit., vol. XXVIII, pp. 47-48; L. G.
Obreg<5n, op. cit., p. 698; J. T. Medina, op. cit., pp. 114 and 193.
27 Genaro Garcia, op. cit., pp. 72-73; L. G. Obreg6n, op. cit., p. 701; J. T. Medina,
op. cit., p. 193.
28 Genaro Garcia, op. cit., pp. 51-52; L. G. Obreg6n, op. cit., p. 695; Historia,
pp. 114, 193,
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quoted from the Bible that "God desires not the death of the sinner
but that he should be converted and live."29
Margarita de Morera, the thirty-six-year-old wife of Pedro de

Castro, had once in Mexico City witnessed the public lashing of a
condemned Judaizer and had freely manifested her pity for the
sufferer. When an Old Christian once asked her how the Judaizers
knew when to congregate for their ceremonies, she said the signal
was the beating of a drum by a little Negro boy gaily dressed and
going through the streets. She appeared at the 1646 auto as re
conciled.30
Manuel Rodriguez Nunez, thirty-four years old, born in Castelo

blanco, was unemployed and therefore in the documents was called
an idle vagrant \yagamundo~\. In fear of the Inquisition, he had
changed his name to Manuel Mendez (alias Manuel Diaz) and lived
in the suburbs of Mexico City. He told the Inquisitors that in the
year 1640 there was a great dispute among the secret Jews in Mexico
concerning the exact day of Yom Kippur—as to whether it occurred
eight days sooner or later in conformity with the Christian calendar.
He added that each of the two groups followed the decision of the
leader and fasted on different days.31
Margarita de Rivera, born in Seville, was the thirty-three-year-old
daughter of Blanco de Rivera. She was a dollmaker and was married
to Miguel Nunez de Huerta. She was a great faster, and she was
accustomed to participating at the washing of corpses and in perform
ing other ceremonies for the dead. Whenever she had a bad dream
she went to confession so as to transfer the bad omen to the priest
[por echar el mal aguero en el confessor]. She used to say that
Judaizers who married Old Christians would go to hell. She was
reconciled in the year 1646.32
Gaspar Vaez Sevilla was the twenty-eight-year-old son of the
wealthy and very pious Judaizer, Simon Vaez Sevilla, and of Dona
Juana Enriquez. While his mother was carrying him, the Mexican
Judaizers expected that he would be born the Messiah of the Jews,
29 Genaro Garcia, op. cit., vol. XXVIII, pp. 54, 82, 83; L. G. Obreg6n, op. tit.,
p. 696; J. T. Medina, op. tit., pp. 114, 191, 193. The manuscript of Gabriel
de Granada's trial was published with a preface and notes bv Dr. Cyrus
Adler. Cf. "Trial of Gabriel de Granada by the Inquisition of Mexico. 1642
1652," in PAJHS, vol. VII (1899), pp. 1-134.
30 Genaro Garcia, op. cit., vol. XXVIII, pp. 70-71; L. G. Obreg6n, op. cit., p. 697.
31 Genaro Garcia, op. cit., vol. XXVIII, pp. 73-75; L. G. Obreg6n, op. tit., p. 694.
32 Genaro Garcia, op. cit., vol. XXVIII, pp. 67-70; L. G. Obreg<5n, op. cit.,
pp. 695-696; J. T. Medina, op. cit., pp. 113, 115, 191, 193.
[241

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and his mother made nine visits to a Saint Moses that a certain
woman had painted.33 He was reconciled in 1646.
Miguel Tinoco, a twenty-three-year-old bachelor, apprenticed to a
silversmith, functioned as sexton of the secret Jewish community.
Three days before Passover he distributed unleavened bread which
had been baked by Blanca Enriquez, the "great Jewess" [la gran
]udia\. Miguel became reconciled in 1646.34
Pedro Lopez de Morales, having been born in Rodrigo, Spain, was
a forty-nine-year-old miner in Ixtan, Mexico. He was the son of
Morales de Mercado of Portugal. It was proven that he had intended
to send his little daughter [mestizuela, since her mother was a Mexi
can Indian], to Spain to be instructed in Judaism by relatives there.
Morales was reconciled in 1647.35
Pedro Fernandez de Castro, born in Valladolid, Spain, and bearing

signs of circumcision, was a thirty-four-year-old peddler in Santiago
de los Valles, Mexico. He was the son of the lawyer, Ignacio de
Aguado, of Portuguese descent. Pedro had previously lived in Ferrara,
Italy, as a freely professing Jew and had also visited the synagogues
in Genoa and in Livorno, Italy. He arrived in Mexico in 1640 in
order to cash the promised dowry from his rich father-in-law, Simon
Vaez Sevilla. Pedro had married Sim6n's daughter, Leonor Vaez, in
Pisa, where she was living with a sister and nieces. When he fell
into the hands of the Inquisition he declared that in the house of
his father-in-law in Mexico City he met crypto-Jews from Spain,
Peru, and the Philippines, and that they observed fast days together.
He became reconciled in 1647.86
Francisco de Leon Jaramillo, born in Mexico in 1626 and un

married, was the son of Duarte de Leon Jaramillo (burned at the
stake in 1649) and Isabel Nunez. He deposed that his father had
circumcised him in the presence of his mother and grandmother, Justa
Mendes, and that he had learned the common prayers of Judaizers
in his father's home. He became reconciled in 1647.87
33 Genaro Garcia, op. cit., pp. 52-53; L. G. Obreg6n, op. cit., p. 696; J. T. Medina,
op. cit., 114, 193.
34 Genaro Garcia, op. cit., pp. 76-77; L.G. Obregdn, op. cit., p. 698; J. T. Medina,
op. cit., p. 193.
35 Genaro Garcia, op cit., pp. 124-125; L. G. Obreg<5n, op. cit., p. 696; J. T.
Medina, op. cit., p. 117.
36 Genaro Garcia, op. cit., pp. 125-128; L. G. Obregdn, op. cit., p. 697; J. T.
Medina, op. cit., pp. 117, 194.
37 Genaro Garcia, op. cit., pp. 109-111; Anonimo, Autos-de-Fe (Mexico, 1953) ,
pp. 7-14; L. G. Obregdn, op. cit., p. 697; J. T. Medina, op. cit., pp. 116, 195;
Misterios de la Inquisicidn y otras Socieclades Secretas de Espana (traducido
del francos, Mexico, 1850), p. 25.
242 ]

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Jorge Jacinto Bazan (alias Baca), of Portuguese Jewish descent,

had been born in Malaga, Spain, in 1610. He was married to Dona
Blanca Juarez, a niece of Juana Enriquez (wife of Simon Vaez Sevilla),
and was a merchant in Mexico City. At the age of thirteen, he had
been circumcised in Marseilles, France, by a surgeon from Florence,
Italy. He migrated to Mexico in the year 1637, bringing a letter of
recommendation to Simon Vaez Sevilla. Sevilla sent him as a salesman
on trips to the interior of Mexico. Once in Sevilla's house he met a
famous rabbi recently arrived from Spain who was acquainted with
his Jewish parents in Italy. Bazan himself had been in Pisa, Livorno,
Salonika, and Marseilles. The famous rabbi advised him that, in
case of interrogation by the Inquisition, he should say he was a
circumcised Jew from Pisa. Bazan was considered a fine Jew [un
Judio fi.no], and his pretty wife was very religious too. He was re
conciled in 1648.38
Francisco Lopes Dias [nicknamed el chato], was born in the year

1608 in Gasteloblanco, Portugal, and at this time lived in Zacatecas,
Mexico. He and his family had left Portugal because of severe persecu
tions of crypto-Jews and had first settled in Seville. They prayed and
fasted there together with many other Portuguese Judaizers. On Yom
Kippur one of them recited prayers from a Hebrew prayer book. In
1637, Dias migrated to Mexico City and continued to observe Judaism
with Mexican Judaizers. He advised them as to what they should
do and say in case of persecution by the Inquisition. Dias was re
conciled in 1648.39
Beatriz Enriquez, twenty-nine years old, was the daughter of Antonio

Rodrigues Arias and Blanca Enriquez of Seville, and married to
Tomas Nunez de Peralta. She told the Court that at the age of twelve
she was instructed in Judaism by her mother. The whole night before
the Day of Atonement she prayed with her parents, standing without
shoes. She had married Peralta because he was known to be a pious
Jew. Good Jews like Peralta, and especially children of martyrs, were
considered as being aristocrats and highly eligible for marriage.
Judaizers used to assemble in the house of Simon Vaez Sevilla who
often told the guests that in case of imprisonment and persecution by
the Inquisition they should not, even under torture, admit anything
or denounce anybody. He used to boast that his arms were strong
38 Genaro Garcia, op cit., pp. 133-269; L. G .Obreg6n, op. tit., p. 699; Misterios,
pp. 46-48; J. T. Medina, op. cit., pp. 118-195.
39 Anonimo, pp. 11-22; Misterios, pp. 43-48; Relation del Tercero Auto particular
Mexico, 1648); L. G. Obreg6n, op. cit., p. 699; J. T. Medina, op. cit., p. 195.
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enough to endure tortures. Blanca Enriquez said that after the burial
of a Judaizer visitors brought hardboiled eggs (which had to be eaten
without salt). Such a visit of mourners was considered a very good
deed and called Aveluz.40 After a death, the water from all pitchers
in the house was poured out, because it was believed, that the depart
ing soul had washed away all his sins in this water. Whenever there
was no rabbi present to perform a marriage ceremony, the Judaizers
would marry by giving each other their word of honor and then go
to the Church for the required Catholic marriage. In case a rabbi
[.sacerdote de su ley] was available, he offered the benedictions over
a glass of wine; the married couple and the guests then drank of
the wine, and the glass was thrown upward and broken. Beatriz
Enriquez was reconciled in 1648.41
Micaela Enriquez, the thirty-four-year-old sister of this Beatriz
Enriquez, was married to Sebastian Cardoso. She repeated the same
charges to the court as her sister and added that on Friday evenings
her mother used to %ht oil lamps instead of the usual candles. In
order not to attract the attention of the slave-girl servants, the lamps
were hidden in an empty wooden box. Her mother used to call the
Old Christians "Orcos"*2 and instructed the children neither to eat
pork nor any meat at the same time with butter. After the death
of her grandmother, so many Judaizers came to their house for the
Aveluz ceremony, that it looked like a public synagogue. Dona Micaela
was called a witch [hechizera] because she carried on her body certain
roots and the teeth of dead people. She was reconciled in 1648.43
Dona Rafaela Enriquez, another daughter of Dona Blanca Enriquez
and Antonio Rodriguez, was married to Gaspar Juarez. She deposed
that when she was twelve or thirteen her parents sent her to a relative
for instruction in Judaism. The whole family in Mexico practiced
Judaism almost as openly as they had done in Amsterdam, Livorno,
and Pisa. They married only crypto-Jews and were categorically op
posed to intermarriage with Old Christians because they knew that the
offspring not receiving a Jewish education would be lost to Judaism.
Before the Day of Atonement, everybody took warm baths and lighted
<o Even though the word Aveluz sounds Spanish, there is no such word in the
Spanish language. It is obviously the Hebrew word Avelut (mourning).
Misterios, pp. 34-38; Anonimo, vol. IV, pp. 15-35; Genaro Garcia, vol. XXVIII,
pp. 203-212; L. G. Obreg6n, op. cit., p. 699; J. T. Medina, op. cit., pp. 112,
116, 117 and 195.
42 Orcos most probably is an abbreviation of porcos (hogs).
43 Misterios, pp. 53-54; L. G. Obregdn, op. cit., p. 699; J. T. Medina, op. cit.,
pp. 119, 195, 218.
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about eighty wax candles for the souls of the living and the dead.
In Simon's house meetings were held for discussions of Judaism. When
the wave of arrests began, the leaders distributed among the crypto
Jews notes concerning the Catholic doctrines in order that everybody
could learn them by heart and recite them in case of arrest, because
prisoners were usually asked to prove that they were good Catholics
by reciting the Paternoster, the Ave Maria, the Credo, and the Salve
Regina. Besides, everybody was instructed not to confess anything and
was threatened in case they denounced others. Dona Rafaela Enriquez
was reconciled in 1648.44
Dona Blanca Juarez, a native of Mexico, was the twenty-two-year

old daughter of Rafaela Enriquez. She was very religious and was
considered a Santa [holy woman]. She was married to Jorge Jacinto
Bazan, and it was expected that she would give birth to the Messiah.
Her family dressed her in a tunic of silver cloth and seated her in the
center of visitors who prayed that she should give birth to the Messiah.
She could speak the African language of Angola and used that lan
guage in speaking to the Negro servants in prison. She told the
Inquisitors that her grandmother, Dona Blanca Enriquez, on the Day
of Atonement used to put her hands on her head while she was
kneeling, to bless her in the name of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. She
became reconciled in 1648.45
Dona Violante Juarez, born in Lima, Peru, was the thirty-six-year

old illegitimate daughter of Gaspar Juarez and was married to Manuel
de Mello. Their house in Guadalajara was a prayer center for
Judaizers. She became reconciled in 1648.46
Leonor Martinez, the fourteen-year-old daughter of the martyr
Sobremonte, told the Court that her parentts and grandparents had
instructed her in Judaism. She had assisted at a Jewish marriage
which was afterwards celebrated in the Church. Whenever her father
left on a journey he first assembled his children, put his hands on
their heads, and gave them his blessing. Leonor was a very religious
girl and was considered by the Mexican Judaizers as being a little
Santa47
a Relation del Tercero Auto particular (Mexico, 1648); Misterios, pp. 55-58;
L. G. Obreg6n, op. tit., pp. 698-699; J. T. Medina, op. tit., pp. 119, 195, 218.
45 cf. Relation del Tercero Auto particular (Mexico, 1648); L. G. Obreg6n,
op. tit., p. 699; J. T. Medina, op. cit., pp. 118, 195.
46 Relation, op. cit.; Misterios, pp. 63-65; L. G. Obreg6n, op. cit., p. 699; J. T.
Medina, op. cit., p. 195.
47 Relation, op. cit., Misterios, pp. 48-49; L. G. Obreg6n, op. cit., p. 699; J. T.
Medina, op. cit., pp. 118, 120, 195.
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Manuel de Mello arrived in Mexico in 1624 where he worked as

a silver- and goldsmith and was known as one of the finest Jews who
had ever migrated from Spain. He instructed many people in Judaism
and married a pious girl, Violante Juarez, daughter of Gaspar
Juarez. In order to be less exposed, they left Mexico City and went
to Guadalajara, where their house became the center [sinagoga] for
secret Jews, and where, whenever necessary, the secret Jews could
get food and help. He was reconciled in 1648.48
Ana Nunez, Antonio Nunez, and Clara Nunez were the daughters
of Leon Jaramillo who was burned at the stake in 1649. All three of
them had told the Inquisition the strange story mentioned earlier that
their father, when starting to instruct them in Judaism, had cut a
piece of flesh from the left shoulder of each, roasted and eaten it.
Ana also said that her father beat her cruelly whenever he heard her
tell her rosary beads. Antonia said her father loved her more than
the other children and gave her nice dresses because she used to fast
and pray and observe Jewish rites. She further deposed that her
father had prayed with his face to the East while wearing a cap on
his head and a Jewish prayer shawl and phylacteries (una vestidura
colorada de bombazi con su cucurucho y capirote). Clara deposed
that her family had forbidden her to fraternize with Old Christians;
that the night after her mother was imprisoned she saw her father
and brothers bury silver money, ingots and other valuable things.
After her father's imprisonment, because she had been called Clara,
the Jewess, she changed her name to Josefa de Alzate and told people
she was a Moorish girl [Morisca~\. All three sisters were reconciled
in 1648.49
Rafael de Sobremonte was the young son of the martyr, Thomas

Trebino de Sobremonte, who was burned alive in 1649. Rafael, born
in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 1648 was only seventeen years old. He
told the Inquisitors that his father had circumcised him while his
mother, Dona Maria Gomez, and his grandmother held him in their
laps. Until he was healed a wax candle was burned nightly in his
room and his father prayed until dawn. After his convalescence he
was bathed and neatly dressed for the family's festivities. He was
brought up to be very religious. In 1643 and 1644, he accompanied his
father on a business trip to Zacatacas and Guadalajara, and they did
*8 Relation, op. tit., Misterios, pp. 51-52; L. G. Obreg6n, op. cit., p. 699.
49 Relation, op. tit., Antonimo, vol. IV, pp. 7-13 and 39-49, 46-55; Misterios,
pp. 30-34, 40-42; Genaro Garcia, op. cit., vol. XXVIII, pp. 201-203; J. T.
Medina, op. cit., pp. 117-119, 195.
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not cat on Thursdays, sometimes not even on Mondays. His father

instructed him in Jewish prayers and in Judaism generally. When
he returned to Mexico City his mother, grandmother and aunt were
very proud of the "new Judaizer."
Rafael further said that when he was traveling with his father
they were one day caught by a heavy rain shower. When his father
then heard him praying to the Queen of the Angels, he scolded him
and told him that God does not have a mother and that there exists
only one God who created heaven and earth. His father had also
confided in him his intention of soon taking the whole family away
from Mexico to a country where they could worship freely. Rafael
was reconciled in 1648.60
Dona Ana Enriquez, born in Seville, Spain, had already been

reconciled in Seville, and it was known that she had been very brave
and had not denounced anybody under torture. In Mexico City, she
was a fervent Judaizer and instructed others in Jewish rites and
ceremonies. People came to her to be cured by her prayers from the
consequences of an evil eye and bewitchment. In the case of a death
among the Judaizers she gave instructions on the rites to be observed.
She passed away in Mexico City before she could be apprehended.
Nevertheless, she was indicted and burned in effigy on April 11,
1649.51
Dona Blanca Enriquez, born in Lisbon, Portugal was the daughter

of Diego Nunez Batoca and Juana Rodriguez, both persecuted and
reconciled by the Inquisition in Granada, Spain. She was married to
Antonio Rodrigues Arias. The teachings of her mother Juana had
made her a very religious person and an instructor of Judaism in
Mexico. She educated her children—Beatrix, Micaela, and Rafaela
mentioned above—to practice Judaism and to teach it to her grand
children. She saw to it that they did not marry Old Christians whom
she always called enemies. All crypto-Jews in Mexico considered her
as the master-teacher [maestra] of Jewish prayers and ceremonies.
She believed the year 1642 to 1643 was the date of the arrival of the
Messiah who would liberate all of them from the persecutions by the
Inquisition. Dona Blanca Enriquez died in prison. Her body was
BO Relacion, op. cit., Misterios, pp. 58-60; L. G. Obreg6n, op. cit., p. 699; J. T.
Medina, op. cit., pp. 119, 120, 195.
61 Cf. P. Mathias de Bocanegra, Auto General de la Fee 1649 (Mexico, 1649);
L. G. Obreg6n, op. cit., p. 705; J. T. Medina, op. cit., p. 206.
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exhumed and delivered to the secular powers for burning at the stake
on April llj 1649.62
Juana Enriquez, born in Seville, as mentioned above, was the wife
of Simon Vaez Sevilla and the mother of Gaspar and Leonor Vaez
Sevilla. Juana was a very religious woman, observing Shabbat, fast and
holy days and ritual baths, and giving generously for charity. Being
the wife of a rich businessman she also attracted attention by her
elegant ways, her fine dresses, luxurious carriages, servants, etc. She
was considered a Santa because she prayed very often. She was
expected to bring the Messiah into the world. As mentioned earlier,
her house was a center for Mexican Jews. In her home Saturday
meals were cooked on Friday, and Judaizers celebrated Shabbat there.
Padre Bocanegra, who wrote the report on the auto-da-fe in which
she appeared, declares that the Mexican Jews expected that Maria
Gomez, wife of Sobremonte, or Juana Enriquez, wife of Simon Vaez
Sevilla, would give birth to the Messiah. He adds with obvious pleasure
that both these mothers were publicly lashed.
The Inquisitors had sentenced Juana not only to become reconciled,
but also to confiscation of her possessions, to the wearing of the
penitential cloak, to expulsion from the West Indies, to permanent
imprisonment, and also to 200 lashes in the streets of Mexico City.63
Matias Rodrigues de Olivera, a fifty-one-year-old bachelor from
Portugal, was known as a very religious Judaizer. He wore a gold
medal with a Hebrew letter on it, which was suspended from a golden
chain. He did not permit his slaves to be baptized. He was reconciled
in 1649.54
Dona Maria de Rivera, the daughter of Diego Lopez, had come

from Casteloblanco, Portugal. She was the mother of Gabriel and
Rafael de Granada who were circumcised by Alvaro de Acuna in
San Luis Potosi, Mexico. She refused food in prison and died of
hunger. Her corpse was exhumed and burned on April 11, 1649.55
Juana Rodriguez, born in Lisbon, was considered a holy person
among the crypto-Jews in Mexico because of her way of life. She
was the daughter of Rodrigo Rodriguez (alias Nunez) and Ysabel
Rodriguez and was married to Diego Nunez Batoca. She had four
62 Mathias de Bocanegra, op. cit.; L. G. Obreg6n, op. Cit., p. 707; J. T. Medina,

op. cit., pp. 205, 408.
B3 Mathias de Bocanegra, op. cit.; L. G. Obreg<5n, op. cit., pp. 700-701; J. T.
Medina, op. cit., pp. 203-204.
64 Mathias de Bocanegra, op. cit.
65 Mathias de Bocanegra, op. cit.; L. G. Obregdn, op. cit., p. 707.
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GRYPTO-JEWS IN MEXICO: 17th CENTURY
daughters—Juana Enriquez, Clara de Silva, Ysabel de Silva, Geronima

Esperanga—and a son named Gabriel Rodriguez Arias. She had raised
them in the Jewish faith. When she died her children buried her in
a separate virgin grave prepared only for her, her children, and-her
grandchildren. She was already dead in 1649, and therefore her body
was exhumed and burned.
The above-mentioned Padre Bocanegra calls her the "root and the
trunk of the great number of Judaizers" [raiz y tronco de la multitud
de JudaizantesJ.56
Gonzalo Diaz Santillan, born in Casteloblanco, Portugal, was murder
ed by fellow crypto-Jews because he had extorted money from them
by threatening to denounce them to the Holy Office.57 The informer
has always been considered an outlaw by the Jews.
The most dangerous offenders, informers, were subject to the
extreme penalty wherever the community could exercise
capital jurisdiction.68
In the twelfth century an informer was stoned to death at the most

solemn hour of Yom Kippur.69 The medieval rabbis proclaimed it a
good deed to kill an informer. Santillan was exhumed and burned by
the Inquisitors on April 11, 1649.
Simon Vaez Sevilla (alias Simon Soburro), born in Casteloblanco,
Portugal, in the year 1598, was the son of Gaspar Gon$alez (alias
Soburro) and Leonor Vaez, both of whom were prosecuted, tried,
and reconciled by the Inquisition in Lisbon. Simon was a business
man in Mexico City, married to Dona Juana Enriquez and the father
of Gaspar Vaez Sevilla and Leonor Vaez Sevilla, all tried by the
Inquisition in Mexico. His brother was Antonio Vaez (alias Antonio
Tirado) who had been burned at the stake as a relapsed Judaizer.
His sister, Dona Elena de Silva (alias Elena Lopez), was tried and
reconciled. He was an uncle of Isabel de Silva (alias Isabel Correa)
who was tried and reconciled, and of Leonor Vaez and Gonzalo
Vaez, who was burned at the stake as a relapsed Judaizer. His
56 Mathias de Bocanegra, op. cit., L. G. Obreg6n, op. cit., p. 702; J. T. Medina,

op. cit., pp. 205, 409.
57 Mathias de Bocanegra, op. cit.; L. G. Obregdn, op. cit., p. 702; J. T. Medina,
op. cit., p. 408.
58 cf. Salo Wittmayer Baron, The Jewish Community, vol. I, (Philadelphia,
1948), p. 169. .
59 Cf. Abraham A. N
p. 132.
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daughter, Leonor Vaez Sevilla, and his sister, Maria, lived as freely
professing Jews in Pisa, Italy.
The Inquisitors imprisoned Simon Vaez as a leader of the Judaizers
in Mexico. He was one of the richest, and his house was the center
for those who came from Portugal, Spain, Italy, or the Philippines
with letters of recommendation. Simon helped them to get started
by giving them merchandise which they peddled in the interior of
Mexico. Externally he lived as a Catholic, keeping good relations with
the authorities. His house was not only a prayer center but also
a forum of discussion. Everybody was instructed in case of imprison
ment not to confess anything and not to denounce anybody, even
under torture. It was known that Simon belonged to the tribe of
Levi, and also that because of this the Mexican Judaizers considered
him their leader. In view of the fact that he was now tried for the
first time, he became reconciled to Catholicism, declaring to the
Inquisitors that he was repentant and asking for mercy. At the auto
da-fe of April 11, 1649, he was sentenced to wear the penitential
garment, to prison, to confiscation of his fortune, and to expulsion
from Mexico.60
Pedro Tinoco, twenty-nine and unmarried, a native of Mexico, was

a Bachelor of Philosophy and Medicine. In Mexico City he practiced
as a physician. He was the son of Diego Tinoco and Dona Catalina
de Silva (alias Enriquez). His mother was burned at the stake on
April 11, 1649, as mentioned above. The Inquisitors considered Pedro
one of the most skilled and dangerous Judaizers and were afraid that
he, like Sobremonte, could become another martyr for Judaism. His
first instruction in Judaism he had received from his grandmother,
Blanca Enriquez. Later, he had studied the Bible, Jewish history,
customs and rites, and had explained them to other Judaizers who
consulted him. He observed Passover, as well as the fast days of
Yom Kippur, Esther, and Tishah be-'Ab. In prison, he was at first
stubborn; then he asked for mercy and was reconciled on April 11,
1649. He had to abjure his heretical errors, wear the penitential
garment, and be deported to Spain. In addition, his academic diplomas
were canceled and he was given 200 lashes in public.61
The impoverished Holy Office in Mexico City grew rich in 1640
as a result of the persecutions en masse of the Marranos and the
80 Mathias de Bocanegra, op. cit.; J. T. Medina, op. cit., pp. 116, 203.
61 Mathias de Bocanegra, op. cit.; L. G. Obregdn, op. cit., p. 703; J. T. Medina,
op. cit., pp. 203-204.
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confiscation of their fortunes—cash, goods, real estate, etc. The value

of the confiscations from 1640 to 1646 amounted to 429,389 pesos.62
Confiscations in 1646 amounted to 38,732 pesos; and, in 1647, to
109,930 pesos.63 Most of the confiscated three million pesos (1640
1649) was pocketed by the Judges-Inquisitors in the form of loans.
Besides, they purchased for themselves at very advantageous prices
the properties of the imprisoned crypto-Jews put up for sale by the
Holy Office—that is, by themselves.64
The crypto-Jewish community in Mexico was completely destroyed
by the trials, condemnations, and executions during the years 1646 to
1649. In the subsequent fifty years—up to the last trial of a Judaizer
in Mexico—only ten were tried.64* Seven of them were Juan Pacheco
de Leon, Luis Perez Roldan, Maria de Zarate, Diego de Alvarado
[who died in prison], Manuel de Leon, Domingo Rodrigues, and
62 cf. J. T. Medina, op. cit., p. 210.

63 The list of the confiscations for the years 1646 and 1647, found in manuscript
in the Archivo Historico Nacional, Madrid (vol. 1054/768, folio 493) shows:
1646
Francisco Ntinez Navarro 922
Francisco G6mez Texosso 3,853
Dona Juana Tinoco 1,884
Luis de Amesquita Sarmiento 8,827
Dona Leonor Niinez 268
Dona Margarita de Rivera 1,239
Dona Margarita de Morera 9,827
Manuel Dias de Castilla 1,320
D. Nuno Pereyra 1,324
Sitn<ln Feruz de Torres 8,796
Thomas Nunes de Peralta 972
Total 38,732 pesos

1647
Antonio Mendes Chillon 25,087
Da. Beatriz Enriques 105
Fernando Rodriguez 9,997
Francisco Franco de Morera 35,081
Ger6nimo Ferndndez Correa 106
Juan M^ndez de Villaniciosa 36,319
Juan Judrez 102
Juan Cardosso 1,498
Pedro L6pez de Morales 492
Thomas M£ndez 1,143
Total 109,930 pesos

This is the correct addition of the figures. In the manusc
figures are erroneously given as 14,862 instead of 148,6
other hand, did not check the figures and gives the a
38,732 and in 1647 as 148,562. Cf. J. T. Medina, op. cit.
no figures available concerning the years 1648 and 1649.
64 Cf., J. T. Medina, op. cit., p. 210.
64* Cf. Trial manuscripts in the Archivo General de la Naci
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Luis de Burgos. Three others—Francisco Botello, Diego Dias, and

Fernando de Medina—became martyrs.64"
The manuscripts covering the trials of the last three have never
been published; a summary of them follows.
IV
THE TRIAL OF FRANCISCO BOTELLO
Francisco Botello was born in Priego, Andalucia, Spain, a desc

of Portuguese Judaizers who were persecuted and punished by
ferent Inquisition tribunals. Botello became a mason and li
Tacubaya, a suburb of Mexico City, and married Maria de Z
The first time he was arrested by the Inquisitors was in 1642
never during his seven years of imprisonment did he admit t
was a Judaizer. Neither did he denounce other Judaizers, despit
tortures. He was condemned to appear at the auto-da-fe of Apr
1649, to abjure his errors de vehementi, to suffer 200 lashings,
be deported to Spain. As in the case of most Judaizers condem
to expulsion, he did not leave Mexico, because he did not have
means to pay for a trip to Spain.
Subsequently, Botello was denounced to the Holy Office for
having obeyed the expulsion order. He was also accused of
displayed his hand crippled by tortures and of having said
has cost me five thousand pesos; one day they will have to repa
This time Botello was imprisoned for nine years. Even then h
not admit to Judaism and did not denounce anybody else.
often asked for a hearing, and during any hearing given him h
reports such as, for instance, that a mysterious Indian visited
in his cell to strike him, or that somebody often entered his
sing and play the guitar, or that he spent thirty-six sleepless
while the Indian spoke through his [Botello's] mouth. Botello cl
he was being visited by the devil.
After observing Botello in his cell, the authorities were inf
that he ate and slept well and that his stories were pure ficti
doubt, Botello invented these stories in order to simulate madn
Mb Manuscripts in the Archivo Hist<5rico Nacional in Madrid also qu

J. T. Medina, op. cit., pp. 110, 113, 138, 193, 203, 205, 193, 243, 24
249, 266, 278, 279 and 415.
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Witnesses deposed that, before and after his trial, Botello was a
Judaizer who tried to win converts; that he owned parchment-bound
booklets containing Jewish prayers; that he never mentioned or
invoked the name of Jesus or the Virgin Mary or any Catholic saint
and did not possess an image of any of them. When he wanted to
thank God for something, he said in the Jewish style:
Praised be the most Holy God of Israel, or the most Holy
God of the Hosts [ Y cuando se of recta dar gracia a Dios, lo
hac'ia al estilo judaico, diciendo• loado sea el Santisimo Dios
de Israel, o el Santisimo Dios de los Exercitos\.
The testimony continued that he rose early every morning and, after
having washed his hands before eating, he retired with his wife, the
Mexican Maria de Zarate, to a room from where the sky could be
seen, and on their knees they recited penitential psalms. Botello did
not eat pork and observed Jewish fast days. After having been released
from prison in 1649, he lived on the San Juan marketplace with four
others who had appeared as reconciled to Catholicism at the auto
of 1649. Because of this the Court claimed that he was continuing his
affection for those who "observed and followed the dead Law of
Moyses" [guardado y seguido la muerta ley de Moyses~\. If he had
been truly converted to Catholicism in 1649, it was claimed, he would
have avoided any further social life with crypto-Jews.
Botello was further accused of having boasted to friends that, in
case of a new trial against him and condemnation to be burned, he
would when brought to the stake act even worse than Thomas Trebino
—he would loudly announce the error of the Christians and urge them
to convert to Judaism. He told his wife that it would be a mistake
not to teach their children Judaism, because they would be lost with
out it. On that occasion he told her a story about a Judaizer who had
made this mistake and later saw his son become a Bishop in Spain.
While in prison, Botello refused food for three days in September,
because he did not know the exact date of the tenth of Tishri, the
Day of Atonement.
The public prosecutor asked the Court to release Botello to the
secular authorities as a relapsed Judaizer. In other words, he recom
mended capital punishment. Botello, in his defense, declared that he
had always been and still remained a true Christian and a Catholic.
He explained that the only reason he had not complied with the
expulsion order was that he did not have the price of passage to
Spain. Beyond that he denied everything he was accused of.
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Nevertheless, Botello was condemned as a heretic Judaizer [hereje

Judaizante], an apostate of the holy Catholic faith. He was sentenced
to have all his possessions confiscated and to be released to the secular
arm—specifically to the Corregidor of Mexico City and his first officer,
whom the Church urgently asked to treat the condemned benevolently
and mercifully. This was the customary formula of the Inquisitors in
cases of capital punishment.
Botello appeared on November 19, 1659, at an auto-da-fe celebrated
on the main square [Plaza Mayor] of the city. He was handed over
to the Corregidor Don Juan Altamirano y Velasco, Conde de Santiago,
who pronounced the following sentence: Botello was to ride a pack
animal through the streets of Mexico City to the San Hipolito Square,
there to be burned "in vivid flames of fire until he turned to ashes
with no memory of him left."
The last page of the trial manuscript reports that Botello was im
mediately brought to the Quemadero where he was garroted, and
that after his death his body was burned \le fue dado garrote y des
pues de muerto fue quemado su cuerpo en vibas llamas de fuego~\ .65
Considering this official version, it would seem that Botello must
have shown some sign of repentance at the last moment, for other
wise he would not have been garroted first. But there is another and
contradictory version.
Rodrigo Ruiz de Zepeda Martinez, author of the booklet, Auto
General de la Fee ... celebrado a los 19 de Noviembre de 1659 Anos
(En la Imprensa del Secreto del Santo Officio), reports differently.
He says that the Jesuit, Padre Bartolome Castao, and the Franciscan
friar, Juan de Zurita, tried without success to convince the sixty-five
year-old Botello that he ought to make a confession in the last hours
of his life. When Botello adamantly refused to mention even the
name of Jesus or Mary, the clergymen were extremely disconsolate
at his letting himself be burned alive [se dexo bresar m'ao] .ee
65 cf. the manuscript of the trial found in the Archivo General de la Naci6n,
Mexico City, Inquisici<5n, vol. 412. "Proceso contra Francisco Botello, Natural
de la Villa de Priego." Cf. also manuscript in the Archivo Hist6rico
Nacional, Madrid, vol. no. 1065/779, "Relaciones de causas de fee desde
Ano 1615 a de 1669," folios 419-426.
Rodriguez Ruiz de Zepeda Martinez, Auto General de la Fee ... celebrado a
los 19 de Noviembre de 1659 anos (Mexico, 1660); L. G. Obreg<5n, op. cit.,
p. 710; J. T. Medina, op. cit., pp. 203, 247, 248ff. Cf. also manuscript in
Madrid, vol. 1065/779, folios 426-429. D. J. Garcia Icazbalceta, Obras, vol. I
(Mexico, 1896), chapter, "Autos da Fe celebrados in Mexico," pp. 298-299,
accepts the version that Botello was burned alive.
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Botello's wife, Maria de Zarate, appeared at the same auto-da-fe

as reconciled to Catholicism. She was fined a thousand pesos and was
interned as a hospital nurse for four years.61
THE TRIAL OF DIEGO DIAS
Diego Dias was born in Ameda, Portugal, and became a farm

Tacubaya, Mexico. His wife, Dona Ana Gomez, was execut
relapsed Judaizer in 1649. Dias also had appeared at the auto
April 11, 1649, as reconciled to Catholicism. He had abju
errors de vehementi and was condemned to expulsion from
Remaining in Mexico, he moved from one place to another
not to be discovered. In 1652, when he was almost seventy ye
he was again imprisoned as a relapsed Judaizer.
Witnesses presented by the prosecution deposed that Dias
conversation with them expressed great joy that Sobremont
resisted all endeavors to convert him to Catholicism and had chosen
the death of a hero by letting himself be burned alive. The prosecutor
saw in this the proof that Dias was "a Jew at heart," because it was
an established fact that Judaizers rejoiced whenever one of them
became a martyr in dying as a Jew.
It was further deposed that Dias called his former wife, Ana Gomez,
a Santa. Moreover, Dias never mentioned the name Jesus but, when
speaking of God, said, "the Holy God [Santo Dzos]," or "the Creator."
Despite the fact that he had lived near a church, he was never seen
attending Mass there. He often ate hardboiled eggs, cheese, bread
and honey, and whenever he was invited out for a meal he refused
to eat meat but carried his own provisions, such as the aforementioned
victuals.
The public prosecutor finally accused Dias of being an impenitent,

relapsed apostate to Catholicism and asked capital punishment for
him. It was recommended that the Court should release the condemned
to the secular arm after confiscation of his fortune, so that his penalty
might serve as an example for others.
Dias' reply to the writ of indictment was that its content was
constructed in malice and that he had always been a Roman Catholic
Christian. And he added ironically:
67 Rodriguez Ruiz de Zepeda Martinez, op. cit.; L. G. Obreg6n, op. cit., p. 711;
J. T. Medina, op. cit., p. 247.
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How could he be a Jew in a country where so many Bishops,

clerks, and religious persons preached and taught the truth?
[ Y como habia de ser Jud'io en tierra donde hay tantos Obis
pos clerigos y religiosos que predican y ensenan la verdad?~\
He denied ever having been a Judaizer and admitted none of the

charges against him.
The Court did not credit his assertions and on October 27, 1659,
condemned him to appear at the auto-da-fe of November 19, 1659,
there to be released to the secular authorities. After the sentence was
read to him, he was handed over to the Corregidor Don Juan Alta
mirano y Velasco, Conde de Santiago, who pronounced the death
sentence: he was to ride through the streets of the city on a pack
animal to the square of San Hipolito, accompanied by the town crier
announcing the delict of the condemned. At the designated spot on
the square the condemned would be burned "in vivid flames of fire
until turned into ashes and no memory is left of him."
The manuscript of the trial closes with the following certificate:
And immediately incontinently on the mentioned day, month,

and year at about 5 p.m., the mentioned Diego Dias, riding
a pack animal and accompanied by Don Marcos Rodrigues
de Sulvara, the major bailiff of this city and a town crier
and trumpeter, was brought through the usual streets to the
post and part and spot selected for this purpose where the
executioner put him to a stake, garroted him, and his body
was burned in vivid flames of fire until he turned into ashes.
All this happened in my presence which I certify.—Witnesses:
Marcos de Bobadilla and Diego Flores, Citizens of
Mexico.68
From this certificate it appears that Diego Dias was burned at the
stake after having been strangulated, in contradiction to the sentence.
We find the explanation of this discrepancy in the 1660 printed
booklet describing the auto celebrated in 1659. The author, Rodrigo
Ruiz de Zepeda Martinez, states that on the day of the auto the
avenues and streets of Mexico City were jammed with 40,000 specta
tors. Diego Dias was accompanied by the clergymen, Fr. Miguel de
Aguilera, and Fr. Augustin de la Madre de Dios, who had spent the
previous night and day with him. While Dias had during the whole
68 The manuscript of the trial is to be found in the Archivo General de la

Nacidn, Mexico City, Inquisici6n, vols. 890 and 394. "Processo contra Diego
Dias, Portugues, por Judaizante" (1642 and 1656). Cf. also manuscript in the
Archivo Hist<6rico Nacional, Madrid, vol. 1065/779, folios 430-4S7.
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trial denied that he had been a Judaizer and had pretended to be

a good Catholic, he could even now not be persuaded to make a
confession. He "insulted" the Inquisition and refused to kiss a cross.
During the procession to the Quemadero the friars told him that the
kissing of the cross would be "the source of his remedy and the
instrument of his salvation," and they held a crucifix near his mouth.
Dias pushed it away, declaring,
Take it away, Padre, because a piece of timber does not bring

salvation to anybody! [Quite, Padre, que un palo a nadie
salva.]
All further endeavors of the clergymen to make Dias die as a

Christian were in vain. The executioners then started in error to
apply the garrote instead of burning him alive. The major bailiff
called their attention to the error and, when Dias was half dead, they
set him on fire.69
VI
THE TRIAL OF FERNANDO DE MEDINA
Fernando de Medina, alias de Merida, alias Moises Gomez

born in Pena Orada, Diocese of Bordeaux, France, in the y
was of Portuguese Jewish descent. At the age of twelve h
Spain to help his uncle in the tobacco business, assuming t
of Fernando de Medina. At the same time his two brother
the name Medina.
Medina remained in Madrid for about six years and then spent
nine years in the tobacco business at Osuna, Spain. Later he became
a traveling salesman in Seville and other Spanish cities. In Luzena
and Puente de Gonzalo he was in business for himself for a year and
a half, then entered into a partnership in Seville, where he went
bankrupt. He was imprisoned until a friend bailed him out fourteen
months later. In 1687, after eleven months' residence in Estepa
Malaga, Santa Maria, Spain, he migrated to Mexico on a vessel in the
fleet of General Don Joseph de Santillan. He again changed his name,
this time to Merida. In Mexico he made his living by peddling goods
or selling from his own tent in Mexico City.
68 Ibid,., p. 298; Zepeda Martinez, op. cit.; L. G. ObregtSn, op. tit., p. 710; J. T.
Medina, op. cit., pp. 203, 249.
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The Inquisitional Court had received information that Medina had

been a lifelong Judaizer. He was imprisoned on April 24, 1691, when
he was about thirty-three years old and unmarried. Witnesses accused
him of being circumcised and of having cohabited with other Judaizers
in Seville and Porcuna. It was said that he had a prayer book with
prayers for morning, afternoon, and evening services; that he was
observed fasting on Yom Kippur and on the day of the fast of
Esther. In several Spanish cities he had been heard to recite the
Shema-Israel prayer when alone and also when in company; and he
was known to have observed Jewish ceremonies and rites.
At his first hearing Medina was, as was usual, examined in Catholic
ism. He knew only how to make the sign of the cross and could not
recite any Catholic prayers. His defense was confused and contra
dictory and, though he simulated insanity, the Court doctor pro
nounced him sane.
Medina told the Court that in his youth he had been taught the
principles of Judaism as a means to attain salvation but that later
he had oscillated. In Mexico, upon hearing sermons and reading books
concerning the Catholic doctrine, he contemplated going to Rome
to throw himself at the mercy of the Pope and to ask for reconcilia
tion to Catholicism. He asked the Holy Office for pardon, mercy, and
reconciliation.
Asked by the Court about details concerning the Jewish ceremonies

he had once observed, Medina deposed that, when he was a young
boy in France, with his father, brothers, and other Jews, he used to
visit a synagogue where the book of the Law [Bible] was recited
and explained from a pulpit. On Saturdays no work was done and
no fire lighted, the meals having been prepared on Friday afternoon.
They did not eat pork or fish without scales. The animals were
slaughtered in a ritual way. They visited the synagogue for prayer in
the morning, at three in the afternoon, and in the evening for about
half an hour each session. Everyone had a prayer book in the language
he understood—his own in Spanish—while the rabbi recited it in
Hebrew. Certain holy days were observed. He had not been circum
cised at the age of eight days but only when he was seven or eight
years old, and then in the synagogue. Upon his arrival in Spain at
the age of twelve he ceased to observe Jewish ceremonies, although
he had fasted a few times, probably not on the correct days since
he could not ascertain the exact dates of the fast days. He further
declared that he did not know anybody whom he could denounce as
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a Judaizer; that he regretted having followed Jewish ceremonies and

would like to have a book from which he could learn Catholicism.
The Court gave him a catechism book.
During many hearings, the Inquisitors encouraged Medina to un
burden his conscience by denouncing his Judaizing friends in Spain
and promised him mercy if he complied. He finally denounced many
people in France (whom the arm of the Inquisition could not reach)
and some people in Spain who were already dead. On the other
hand, he named as Spanish Judaizers certain ones whom he suspected
of having denounced him.
Medina's defense tactics were to confuse the Inquisitors. He often
revoked what he had admitted earlier and refused to sign statements
of his oral depositions. As punishment for this chains were applied to
his hands and feet for a certain period.
One day the jailors saw him dressed with a white shirt over his
prison garment. Questioned about the meaning of this, Medina ex
plained that it was a Jewish custom which showed that the Law of
Moses was the better and cleaner one and that he was not a Christian
but a Jew. The same day he asked for a new hearing. Brought before
the Inquisitors, he told them that he did not feel as a delinquent at
all; that he was only doing what his mother and father had taught
him to do in case he should ever be imprisoned in Spain, for in
such a case the Inquisitors there would have liberated him; that he
thought the court in Mexico should do the same.
In this way Medina changed his tactics. At first he claimed to be
repentant, wanting to be reconciled to Catholicism, hoping that,
since this was the first accusation against him, he would be released
from prison and expelled with confiscation of his fortune [if any].
Then, he remembered [or else had received advice while in jail] that
people born as Jews and never baptized were not subject to the juris
diction of the Inquisition, because those authorities only persecuted
apostates.
Often during Medina's years in prison clergymen tried to obtain
his full confession and to convert him, but they finally reached the
conclusion that this was impossible. Even the defense lawyer provided
him by the court desisted from defending him.
The public prosecutor formulated the bill of indictment against
"Fernando de Medina, alias Don Fernando de Medina y Merida,
alias Moises Gomez," a heretic, Judaizer, apostate of the Holy
Catholic faith, a pertinacious and stubborn perjurer, confessing and
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revoking, and simulating insanity. The Court was asked to release

Medina to the secular arm for punishment as a heretic and a Judaiz
ing, obstinate Jew.
When this bill of indictment was read to Medina, he answered
that he was not forty-one but thirty-four years old; that he was of
the Jewish nation, an observer of the Law of Moses [que era de
nacion judia, observante de la Ley de Moises] as so many others
in Spain and in other parts of the world; that he had always admitted
that he was baptized and confirmed a Catholic; that he had declared
to the qualified priests of the court visiting him in prison [padres
calificadores] that he wished henceforth to live in conformity with
the Law of Jesus Christ. Medina protested against the prosecutor's
demand for his release to the secular authorities because such a proce
dure was not according to custom; that, in view of the fact that this
Court was an ecclesiastical body and he a confessed defendant reduced
to the practice of the Law of Jesus Christ, he should not be delivered
to secular justice but only to the jail warden for penitence. He re
quested the Court to act accordingly.
The Court gave Medina another chance to discuss his religious
beliefs with a learned and competent Inquisition lawyer and with
qualified priests. Their report to the Court was that Medina continued
to talk in a confusing manner. Medina finally persisted in these
discussions that his salvation could be obtained only through the Law
of Moses, and that he would die for it if necessary [persistia con toda
expresi&n y claridad en que se podia salvar y se salvaba en la ley de
Moises, y que era buena y que moriria por ella si fuese menester~\.
The Court released Medina to the secular arm, asking the Corre
gidor of Mexico City, Don Carlos Tristan de el Pozo, to treat the
condemned kindly. On Sunday, June 14, 1699, Medina appeared at
an auto-da-fe celebrated in the patio of the Dominican Convent in
Mexico City, which was crowded with ecclesiastical and secular of
ficers as well as with spectators. The sentence was read aloud, and
the Corregidor condemned him to death at the stake.
Medina was afterward brought riding a pack animal, accompanied
by a town crier who published his delict to the people on the streets.
At the place of burning (this time called in the manuscript brazero
instead of Quemadero), he was put to the stake. Friars of different
religious fraternities and qualified priests of the Holy Office admonish
ed him to die as a Catholic, but in vain. The executors tied him to
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the stake and burned him alive. The ashes of his body were thrown
into the nearby canal at nine p.m.70
Besides the manuscript of the trial from which we have related
the story of the martyr Moises Gomez (alias Fernando de Medina y
Merida), there exists a printed source of the year 1699: the report
of the auto-da-fe of June 14, 1699, during which Fr. Domingo de
Soussa delivered the sermon. Here we find more details concerning
the last twenty-four hours of Medina's life. During the previous night
he was visited in his cell every hour by a different priest who tried
to convert him to Catholicism. Medina refused to argue and repeated
ly answered, "Yes" [5i], with the result that the visitors could not
ascertain his true intentions. Also during the next day's procession,
Medina behaved with composure, kept his serenity while the sentences
were read to him, and ignored all supplications concerning a last
minute conversion. To the very end he remained calm until his body
was turned to ashes.71
On the other hand, Antonio de Robles wrote in his diary that

Medina (whom he also called "Alberto" Moisen Gomez) seated him
self at the stake and behaved with much effrontery before he was
burned alive on June 15[?], 1699.72 There is also a report from the
Tribunal in Mexico City, addressed to the Head Office of the Spanish
Inquisition and dated March 9, 1700, on the trial of Medina and
his execution by burning alive at the stake.73
Judaism was thus exterminated in Mexico at the end of the seven
teenth century.
In the year 1788, Don Rafael Gil Rodriguez, a clergyman, native
of Granada, Spain, but living in Guatemala, was accused of Judaism,
taken to Mexico, and imprisoned. On February 9, 1792, he was
sentenced to be released to the secular arm. As a repentant he asked
for mercy and appeared at the auto of August 9, 1795, as reconciled.74
70 The manuscript of the trial is in the Archivo General de la Naci6n, Mexico

City. Inquisicidn, vols. 681 and 704. "Causa contra Fernando de Medina y
Merida, alias Moists G6mez, por judaizante. Sentencia con mdritos de este
reo."
71 Sermdn en el Auto Publico de Fee que el Tribunal de El Santo Oficio de
Nueva Espaiia, celebrd el dia quatorze de Junto de 1699, en el Real Convento
de N.P.S. Domingo de Mexico. Dixolo el M. Fr. Domingo de Soussa
(Mexico, 1G99).
72 Antonio de Robles, Diario de Sucesos Notables, tomo III (Mexico, 1946), p. 79.
73 Cf. J. T. Medina, op. cit., p. 415; note 45; ibid., pp. 278, 279, 415; L. G.
Obreg6n, op. cit., p. 713.
74 Cf. J. T. Medina, op. cit., p. 306. Cf. also YMnez, as in note 75.
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The nineteen crypto-Jewish martyrs of the seventeenth century

were:
Dona Maria Nunez de Carvajal (1601)

Thomas de Fonseca Castellanos (1601)
Simon Rodriguez Nunez (1648)
Francisco Lopes Blandon (1649)
Dona Ana de Leon Carvajal (1649)
Gonzalo Flores (1649)
Ana Gomez (1649)
Maria Gomez (1649)
Duarte de Leon Jamarillo (1649)
Simon Montero (1649)
Leonor Gomez Nunez (1649)
Dona Catalina de Silva (1649)
Thomas Trebino de Sobremonte (1649)
Antonio Vaez Tirado (1649)
Isabel Tristan (1649)
Gonzalo Vaez (1649)
Francisco Botello (1659)
Diego Dias (1659)
Fernando de Medina (1699)
By a decree dated Feebruary 22, 1813, the Cortes (the senate and
congress of deputies) in Spain abolished the tribunals of the Inquisi
tion for Spain and New Spain. They were re-established by King
Ferdinand VII's decree of July 21, 1814, and were again suppressed
in the year 1820 (this time permanently).75
VII
social, economic, and religious conditions among the

crypto-JEWS IN COLONIAL mexico
Some of the Jews who had been forcefully converted to Catholicism

in Spain and in Portugal were with Christopher Columbus when he
discovered America, with Pedro Alvares Cabral when he discovered
Brazil, and also with Hernando Cortez when in 1521 he conquered
Tenochtitlan (Mexico City), the capital of the Aztec empire. Other
Jews followed them to the newly opened hemisphere.
75 cf. Yolanda Mariel de Ybdnez, La Inquisicidn de Mexico durante el Siglo XVI

(Mexico, D.F., 1945), p. 368.
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These New Christians (as they were called) were officially Catholics,
but the majority of them secretly observed Jewish rites. Those who
risked a voyage of several months on a sailing vessel to reach a land
inhabited by savages were adventurers attracted by reports of gold,
silver, and precious stones to be obtained, as well as by business
prospects. But many were crypto-Jews escaping persecution. These
were descendants of Spanish and Portuguese Jews. Some who had
been expelled from Spain in 1492 followed the land route from Spain
to Portugal, returning to Spain later with changed names as New
Christians. They then migrated to the Americas and were known as
"Portugals."
Between 1580 and 1630 several hundred crypto-Jews settled in
Mexico. They had to adjust to the climate of Mexico City (elevation
7,347 feet) and to the completely different population. They en
countered the following ethnical and social conditions:
1. Native Indians cultivated manioc or yucca (source of tapioca),
did the hard work in the mines, and transported loads on their backs.
2. African Negroes who were slave laborers.
3. Gachupins, Spanish-born government officials.
4. Catholic clergymen.
5. Creoles (white Spaniards born in Mexico, mostly heirs of Cortez'
conquistadores) who owned big estates, slaves, gold and silver mines,
or held well-paid Church or government positions, and who lived in
luxury, occupied themselves mostly with gambling, courtesans, bull
fights, and cockfights.
6. Mestizos (offspring of Europeans and Indians), energetic and
enterprising, who built up the country.
7. Sambos (offspring of Indians and Negroes).
8. Mulattoes (offspring of whites and Negroes).
It is easy to see that the crypto-Jews could hardly be assimilated
by any of these ethnic entities. Naturally they clustered together, inter
married, and remained bound together by their common secret. They
were mostly merchants, with tents or stores in the cities, or peddlers
traveling throughout the country to distribute merchandise imported
from Europe.
Mexico was then, as now, the leading silver producer of the world.
This enormous production enriched the Creoles who created a silver
nobility by purchasing Spanish titles of Conde (Count) and Marques.'76
76 Cf. Lesly Byrd Simpson, Many Mexicos (Los Angeles, 1959), pp. 127-135.
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These new aristocrats needed wine, silk, spices, and other delicacies.
They were good customers for the goods the New Christians imported
from the Far East via Acapulco and from Europe via Vera Cruz.
Simon Vaez Sevilla and Thomas Trebino de Sobremonte were known
as the wealthiest crypto-Jews in seventeenth-century Mexico. The

value of the liquidated wealth of all crypto-Jews, as appraised by the
Inquisition in the years 1642 to 1649, was more than three million
pesos.77 The real value of this confiscated wealth must have been
several times that amount.
Most of these crypto-Jews arrived in Mexico without means but

with letters of recommendation to the already established crypto-Jews
who received them as guests in their homes, supplied them with
merchandise, and sent them to the interior on sales trips. Those who
had success opened their own tents or stores. Some of them became
miners, some gold- or silversmiths. The best recommendation for a
new immigrant was his knowledge of Judaism, his practice of Jewish
rites, and his connection with the families of persecuted crypto-Jews.
Such immigrants eventually married the prettiest and most religious
daughters of the richest crypto-Jews in Mexico.
The manuscripts of the inquisitorial trials tell us of very few Negro
and Indian children born to Jewish fathers. Francisco Lopes Blandon,
garroted in 1649 for Judaizing, had been accused of circumcising his
son born to a mulatto woman. Esperanza Rodrigues, a mulatto, was
the daughter of the New Christian Francisco Rodriguez and the Negro
Isabel who came from African Guinea. Esperanza and her three
daughters observed Jewish rites. Pedro Lopez de Morales was accused,
during his trial for Judaizing, of having intended to send his mestizuela
daughter (born to an Indian woman) to relatives in Spain for instruc
tion in Judaism.
A fantastic story was told to the Inquisitors during the trial of the
martyr Duarte de Leon Jamarillo by his young daughters, Ana, An
tonia, and Clara Nunez. They deposed that when they were about
twelve years old their father instructed them in Judaism, cut a piece
of flesh from their left shoulders (in the presence of their mother),
roasted it and ate it. The Inquisitors claimed to have thus discovered
a new kind of circumcision.
77 J. T. Medina, op. cit., p. 210, based on a letter of the visitor, Don Pedro
de Medina Rico, dated July 10, 1656, to the Council of the Inquisition in
Spain.
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The trial manuscripts also reveal that a Judaizer, Manuel Carrasco,

carried a piece of mazzah [unleavened bread] brought from Madrid
in a small bag on his chest, and that he used it for healing sick
people; that Gonzalo Diaz Santillan was murdered by fellow Judaizers
because he extorted money from them by threatening to report them
to the Holy Office.
Besides many such eccentric stories, the trial manuscripts and
relaciones [printed reports] give other clues to the religion practiced
by the Mexican crypto-Jews. They lived as Judaizing Catholics. From
time to time they had to attend Mass, to make confession, and to
obtain sacramental absolution. They had to celebrate Catholic saints'
days and to observe Catholic fast days, to baptize newborn children,
to marry in the Church, to bury their dead in the Catholic cemetery.
At the same time they observed Shabbat [the Jewish sabbath]. Meals
were prepared on Friday for Saturday, because the Jewish law pro
hibits the kindling of a fire and work on Shabbat. Oil lamps instead
of candles were lighted on Friday evenings and hidden in wooden
boxes (in order not to be seen by servants) until they burnt out.
In many homes in Mexico City the crypto-Jews gathered on Friday
evenings and other holidays to pray, to eat, to fast, and, last but not
least, to discuss their problems with the Holy Office—that is, how
to behave in case of imprisonment and torture. The general instruc
tion was not to admit anything and not to denounce anybody even
under the cruelest tortures. Very, very few were strong enough to
follow this rule.
Circumcision of sons was rarely performed in Mexico on the eighth

day after birth, as ordered by the Jewish law, because the danger of
discovery was too great. The children until the age of thirteen were
raised as Catholics. Only then the boys were circumcised. Boys and
girls both were then told their parents' secret and initiated into
Judaism. They were also told that in observing Judaism they were
risking their lives and the lives of their relatives and friends.
Boys who for some reason could not be circumcised at the age of
thirteen often circumcised themselves or were circumcised later in
life. It seems that there was usually some specialist available for this
rite, and sometimes the expert was a guest from Europe whom the
Inquisitors called famoso Rabbino [a famous rabbi]. There is no
proof that all newborn children were given, besides a Christian first
name, also a secret Hebrew name, but there is proof enough that some
of them did receive Hebrew names.
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It seems that the Mexican crypto-Jews did not know how to read
Hebrew but that they knew by heart a few Hebrew words, such as
Adonai (my Lord), Adonai Sabaot (the Lord of the Hosts), Shema
(Hear, the first word of the Shema Yisrael prayer), and Aveluz
(mourning). Some of them could recite a prayer in imperfect Hebrew.
Their prayers and psalms were in Spanish. Those who knew Latin
learned Judaism from the Latin Bible and from ecclesiastical books.
For instance, Luis de Carvajal, Jr., in this way learned the ten com
mandments and Maimonides' thirteen fundamentals of the Jewish
creed.
It is hard to say whether the crypto-Jews in seventeenth-century

Mexico were organized in a kind of community, but we know they
assembled for prayer in the homes of Simon Vaez Sevilla, Thomas
Trebino de Sobremonte in Mexico City, and Manuel de Mello in
Guadalajara. The Inquisitors called these men rabbis or dogmatists
and their homes synagogues.
In the trial records woman are often mentioned as specialists in
baking and distributing unleavened bread for Passover and in treating
corpses in conformity with Jewish customs. The families of the
deceased always tried to bury them in virgin soil. The mourning
families were visited by other crypto-Jews, who brought them cold
eggs for their first meal. Such a visit was called Aveluz (mourning)
and was considered as a good deed.
Some Judaizers, such as Simon Montero and Duarte de Leon Jama
rillo, are mentioned as having been seen praying in tallit [prayer
shawl] and tefillin [phylacteries] while wearing caps brought from
Europe. Mention is also made of Yom Kippur [Day of Atonement],
the fast day of Esther, and Tishah be- Ab [day of commemorating
the destruction of the Temple], Many Judaizers fasted also every
Monday and Thursday. Duarte de Leon Jamarillo explained that,
before coming to Mexico, he had vowed to take his family from the
Iberian Peninsula to a country where Jews could practice Judaism
freely. He felt guilty at not having kept his vow and therefore fasted
Mondays and Thursdays in penance.
Because of the variation between the Christian and Jewish calendars,
it was not easy to know the exact days of the Jewish holidays and
fast days. Luis de Carvajal and other Judaizers who lived in Mexico
in the sixteenth century simplified the problem by celebrating Passover
on the fourteenth day after the new moon observed in March, the
Day of Atonement on the tenth day after the new moon of Sep
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tember, and so forth. On the other hand, it seems that the seventeenth
century Judaizers did not use the Christian calendar based on the
lunisolar system as a medium for a simplified lunar calculation. They
most probably learned the exact dates from new immigrants every
year, though without such vital information they observed the appear
ance of the new moon and calculated when Yom Kip pur and other
holidays were due. In 1640 the two most important leaders, Antonio
Vaez and Thomas Trebino de Sobremonte, disagreed concerning
the proper day of Yom Kippur. Sobremonte, and certainly all his
followers, in that year fasted not less than eight days in order not
to miss the correct date.
Meat is never mentioned as the food of the Mexican Judaizers
(certainly because it was impossible for them to have animals slaugh
tered ritually), but fish, eggs, vegetables, honey, and cheese are often
mentioned. On Fridays and the eves of holidays people took baths,
changed underwear, and replaced bed linen. On the eve of Yom
Kippur wax candles were lighted for the souls of the departed and
the living also. Some Judaizers used to spend the whole night before
the Day of Atonement praying while standing.
Crypto-Jews in Mexico as in other countries avoided marriage with
bona fide Christians and intermarried. Usually the marriages were
celebrated at home in conformity with Jewish tradition and only later
in the Church, and children were blessed in the Jewish way, hands
on the children's heads during the recitation of the blessing.
Always afraid of being discovered and tried by the Inquisition, the
Mexican Judaizers expected that the Messiah was already born or
would be born in Mexico to liberate them. Their hopes concentrated
on the sons of especially religious young women. It was expected that
Gaspar Vaez Sevilla, son of the very religious Dona Juana Enriquez
(considered a Santa) and Simon Vaez Sevilla, would turn out to be
the Messiah. Some expected that Rafael de Sobremonte, son of the
Santa Maria Gomez and Thomas Trebino de Sobremonte, would be
the Messiah. Others expected that other devoted women, such as
Dona Blanca Juarez or Ynes Pereira, would give birth to the Messiah.
Under the influence of Catholicism some of the crypto-Jews prayed
to Adonai on their knees, a Catholic and not a Jewish method. Most
of them believed that Judaism would save their souls from the spiritual
consequences of sin—that is, from eternal damnation—a concept
strange to Judaism.
Much superstition prevailed, especially among some women who
were inclined to believe in witchcraft. Dona Micaela Enriquez, for
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instance, used to carry certain roots and the teeth of deceased. Dona
Ana Enriquez used to cure people from the consequences of the
Evil Eye. Dona Margarita de Rivera, on days following a bad dream,
used to visit the Padre confessor in order to transfer the bad omen
upon him. Isabel de Rivera told people that the Jewish law did not
permit the eating of pork because pigs were metamorphosed human
beings. But no crypto-Jewish woman was ever processed by the In
quisition on a charge of witchcraft, while many Gentile women in
Mexico were so prosecuted and condemned.
The Judaizing women, in Mexico as in other countries of the
dispersion, played an enormous part in holding the torch of Judaism
for centuries after the forced conversion to Catholicism at the end
of the fifteenth century. They taught their children Jewish rites and
prayers, and often they endured tortures in the prisons of the In
quisition with greater fortitude than men. Eleven of the thirty-one
Judaizers executed in Mexico were women.
There are no statistics on the crypto-Jewish population of Colonial
Mexico, for the Inquisition documents record only those who were
apprehended. Among 2,281 trials of the Mexican Holy Office, 351
concerned crypto-Jews, including many who had left Mexico in time
and many who were already dead or who died in prison during the
trials. Twenty-seven of the condemned were executed by garrote
(strangulation), and their bodies burnt at the stake. Four were burnt
alive: the martyrs Thomas Trebino de Sobremonte, in 1649, Fran
cisco Botello and Diego Dias, in 1659, and Fernando de Medina, in
1699.
The crypto-Jews had come to Mexico full of hope that they would
make their fortunes in the New World and that, far away from Spain
and Portugal, they would be able to serve their God. A few did
become rich but, poor or rich, none of them could avoid the persecu
tions of the Holy Office, so they lived in constant terror.
By the end of the seventeenth century the whole crypto-Jewish
community in Mexico had been destroyed.
268]

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Zacualpa (Mexico), 190. Zionism, American, 282-84.

Zangwill, Israel, 11, 58. Zionist, 51, 57, 72.
Zapata, Antonio, 234. Zionist Congress, First, 61.
Zarate, Maria de, 251-53, 255. Zionists, 49, 282-84. See Zionism.
Zarchin, Michael, M., 134. Zola, Emile, 41, 56.
Zas, Pedro Rodriguez. See Rodriguez Zola and the Dreyfus Case: His Defense
Zas, Pedro. of Liberty and Its Enduring Signifi
Zhitnik, Abraham, 164n. cance, 41.
Zhitomir, 152. Zolotkoff, Leon, 161.
Zinberg, S. L., 152n. Zumarraga, Juan de, 174.
Zionism, 52, 60, 72, 107, 111, 115, 118, Zurita, Juan de, 254.
120, 122-23, 126-27, 133, 143-44.
ERRATA
Page 21, note 8: For Schwartz read Schwarz

Page 40, item 61: For Grossetestes read Grosseteste
Page 113, item 120: For Tabes read Tables
Page 164, note 51: For History of the Jews in Chicago, read History of the
Jews of Chicago
Page 182, line 40: For Guimar read Guiomar
Page 214, line 29: For Bermejero read Bergemero
Page 226, line 36: For Jamarillo read Jaramillo
322 ]

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Crypto-Jews in Mexico during the Seventeenth Century

Author(s): Arnold Wiznitzer

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23874312

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The beginning of the seventeenth century found only a

Among the Judaizers condemned to death were the following:

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2. Thomas de Fonseca Castellanos, a native of Portugal, had come

3. Francisco Rodriguez de Ledesma was accused of Judaizing and

Another auto-da-fe was celebrated on April 20, 1603. At this, Juan

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their interpretations with the scholarly clergymen. He appeared as

As a consequence of the trials of 1590, 1596, and 1601, Mexican

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1. Dona Ana de Leon Carvajal was a daughter of Francisco Ro

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2. Francisco Lopez Blandon (alias Ferrasas) was born in 1619,

4. Ana Gomez, born in Madrid in 1606, was a daughter of Leonor

6. Duarte de Leon Jaramillo, a businessman in Mexico, born in

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7. Simon Montero, born in 1600 in Casteloblanco, Portugal, was

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at the auto of January 23, 1647, and was c6ndemned to death. He

10. Dona Catalina de Silva (alias Enriquez) was born in Seville in

12. Antonio Vaez (alias Tirado, also called Captain de Castelo

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wave of arrests began in 1642 Antonio Vaez admonished his friends

13. Gonzalo Vaez was born in 1602 at Casteloblanco, Portugal. He

THOMAS TREBINO DE SOBREMONTE

Sobremonte was arrested by the Inquisition for the first tim

14 The manuscripts of the Sobremonte trials (1625 and 1649) are fo

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He was born in the town of Medina de Rioseco in Castile, Spain.

Accused by the Inquisitors of being a Judaizer, Sobremonte averred

Sema, Adonai, Beruto, Ceolan, Banel [obviously the Shema

He further quoted a prayer which started with the defective Hebrew

Binuam, Adonai, Maciadeno, [continuing in Spanish: ] debajo

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**)SeLLO OVARTO, VN QVARTlLfcO,

THOMAS TREMINO [TREBINO] DE SOBREMONTE IS SENTENCED TO

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sede alumbrado y enderezado a tu servicio, no temere, el

Sobremonte then went on to explain that his mother had owned

During renewed interrogations about his mother's teachings, Sobre

Bendito sea el Poderoso Adonai, que en las enseiianzas me

Sobremonte told the Court that he relented of having followed his

io Cf. Boletin mentioned above, vol. VI, pp. 426-427.

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Besides, he was required to assist every Sunday and on holy days at

How serious Sobremonte's repentance was can be learned from

On June 20, 1629, he was again denounced to the Inquisitors by

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Many witnesses claimed that when Sobremonte married Maria

18 Ibid., vol. VIII, p. 41.

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Other witnesses testified concerning the wealth of Sobremonte,

The evening before that auto-da-fe, on April 10, 1649, Sobremonte

i# Ibid., vol. VII, p. 128.