11.

A Moluccan Crypto-Muslim before the

Transpacific Inquisition (1623–1645)
Ryan Dominic Crewe

Abstract
In 1623 and again in 1643, a Moluccan soldier by the name of Alexo de
Castro became one of the few individuals to be shipped from Manila to
Mexico to face trial by the Inquisition, which operated out of New Spain.
In the trial documents, we learn of his life as a mestizo of Portuguese
and Southeast Asian lineage who traveled from the Moluccas to Goa
and then to Manila in the course of his career as a soldier. We also
learn of this mestizo’s alleged adherence to the practice of Islam and
hear the voices of the women who accused him of sexual assault. Ryan
Dominic Crewe places the document in the context of institutional
history and in that of the global mestizaje characteristic of Iberian
maritime imperialism.

Keywords: Inquisition; Islam; mestizaje; women; sexual assault

In 1623, a Moluccan soldier named Alexo de Castro was arrested by authori-

ties of the Holy Off ice of the Inquisition in Manila. Denounced by his
wife, Ynés de Lima, for secretly observing the Muslim faith in Manila,
Castro faced inquisitorial investigations that initially were inconclusive.
Alexo de Castro was released. Two decades later, Ynés de Lima and her
slave María de Lima denounced Alexo de Castro for secretly observing
Islam in Manila, for sexually abusing women in his household, and for
making heretical statements regarding fornication. Considering this
alleged crypto-Muslim a threat to Christianity society, inquisitors sent
him to Mexico City, the seat of the inquisitorial district of which the
Philippines was a part, for trial. Castro was ultimately tried, found guilty,

Lee, C.H. and R. Padrón (eds.), The Spanish Pacific, 1521–1815: A Reader of Primary Sources.
Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020
doi 10.5117/9789463720649_ch11