Marranos- a lost people
Some people might call them New Jews, some New Christians, and others call them Marranos.
The majority of the world population has no idea who the Marranos are. To begin to
explain these secret people, one must first receive a lesson in World History. We will
begin in the 1492.
In school, we are brainwashed to connect the year 1492 with the year that Columbus
discovered the New World. Yet, if we look at the year 1492, there are other occurrences
which are noteworthy. For instance, in the year 1492, Spain, the country which sent
Columbus to America, decided to officially expel the Jews from Spain. The Jews were
forced to either leave Spain, convert to Catholicism, or be put to death. This was not a
surprise to the Jews of Spain. Since 1931, there had been anti-Jewish riots throughout
Spain. For years, the Jews had been converting to Christianity to escape religious
persecution. These Jews were called conversos. The twist to this tale is that these
conversos actually were only putting on a front. They still considered themselves Jews.
They practiced in secret.1 The Spanish made every attempt to search out and punish these
conversos. Some Jews chose not to convert and they moved to Portugal. . Unfortunately,
Portugal, in 1497, expelled the Jews from its borders as well. Anti-semitism was growing
in Western Europe and the Jews needed to escape. The prime choice seemed to be so
obvious. The Jews went to the New World.
The immigration of the Marranos to the new world might have begun with none other than
Christopher Columbus. This, of course, is not definite, but there has been research
which has shown that Columbus was indeed a Marrano. Apparently his parents were
Marranos.2 Even though there are some disagreements about this fact, there is strong
evidence to support the claim that Columbus was Jewish.
As the Marranos arrived in the New World, they were not able to reveal their secret
identities and practice as Jews. This was because the Spanish government established
inquisition offices in the New World. These office's sole responsibility was to hunt down
Marranos and bring them to justice. The inquisitors had to visit every town once a year
and gather evidence of "non-believers" of the church. They would reward anyone who came
forth with information. The information could be days old or forty years old, it made no
difference to the Inquisitors. The punishments for being caught were varied, never
merciful. The mildest form of punishment was Scourging. This was when the victim was
forced to strip to the waist in public and receive hundreds of lashes. The victims could
also just be sent to the galleys. Women often had to go work in hospitals or correction
facilities without pay. The worst and most common punishment was being burned at the
stake. This was the punishment which the Crown decreed applied to all who swayed from the
church.3 For example, in 1649, 109 Marranos were rounded up in Mexico's capital and
killed.4 The Marranos were forced to live in hiding and in fear. One can compare this to
the Jews in hiding during the Holocaust. They had to always be careful of what they said
and what they did.
The fact that the Marranos kept their religion hidden meant that their entire process of
religious practice had to be transformed. This encompassed prayers, holidays, scriptures
and customs. The Marranos could not keep Jewish books or religious materials and
therefore everything had to be memorized and passed down orally. This, of course, lead to
a decline in religious knowledge through each generation. Another obstacle was that the
Marranos had to profess their loyalty to the Catholic church. They often became involved
in the church, as to help conceal their true identities. There is a story of a Rabbi who
converted to Catholicism and he eventually became a bishop in the church. This is just an
example of the extremes that the conversos would go to in order to conceal their
religion.
Holidays took new forms during the Spanish Inquisition. The holiest holiday of the Jews
is Yom Kippur. During this holiday, Jews beg G-d for forgiveness and they fast for 24
hours. Instead of praying all day, the Marranos would only pray for a few hours. They did
fast, but if they went outside they would place a toothpick in their mouths in order to
fool the Christians. The Jewish holiday of Passover was also observed in an abnormal way.
Normally the holiday consists of two seders (meals) during which the story of the Jews
escaping slavery and leaving Egypt is told. The Marranos could strongly relate to this
story as they felt that they were being enslaved by the Inquisitors. The Seders are
followed by a week of observance during which no leavened bread is consumed. The Marrano
Passover began without the reading of the Passover story. During the week of observance,
many Marranos decided to fast because they had become accustomed to fasting during Jewish
holidays. As for the unleavened bread, Jewish doctors would prescribe it to Christians
with stomach aches. Therefore, during Passover, the Jews would contend that they had
stomach aches and had to eat the matzah (unleavened bread).5
The Marranos kept their beliefs alive with a specific saying, which said,"...salvation
was possible through the Law of Moses, and not through the Laws of Christ." Marrano
children were raised as devout Catholics. The Jewish tradition of a Bar Mitzvah was
replaced to keep their identities hidden. At the age of thirteen, the child was taken
aside and told the truth about his religion and the Laws of Moses. The interesting aspect
of Marrano life was the role of the women. The women became the "Spiritual Leaders."
Throughout history, it has been shown that the women are the ones who refuse to
assimilate. The Marrano women were the, "vast majority of the few who maintained their
Judaism." The women were also known to have a familiarity with the Jewish Prayers. But as
for the Hebrew language, this became practically extinct.6
Marranos could not take the chance of being overheard speaking Hebrew. They also refused
to write in the language. Because of this fear, Hebrew disappeared from the later
generations of Marranos. The removal of Hebrew lead to the removal of all Jewish texts.
The only remaining text which the Marranos could use was the Bible. This was learned
literally. As for prayers, the majority of them were original. Unfortunately the prayers
had been lost in the silence and the Marranos were forced to create their own prayers.
Marriage was another difficult aspect of the Marrano transformation. The primary concern
was that the spouse had to be Jewish.. Intermarriage was never an option. Yet, even more,
the spouse had to be a "learned" Jew who was neither ignorant of the religion nor
non-practicing. The couples could not be married by a rabbi, so they were married in the
church and then blessed by a rabbi at a later date. The marriage process was
indispensable to the Jews, as it was their only guarantee of the continuation of their
religion.7
Food was another issue with the Marranos. The Marranos tried their hardest to keep the
laws of Kosher. They refused to eat pork and they would even tell their children that,"
those who ate pork would be turned into pigs." They attempted to not cook food between
Friday night and Saturday night, because this would be breaking the Sabbath. The Marranos
also tried to keep the Sabbath. They would light a candle for the Sabbath and not
extinguish it. In regards to the Jewish tradition of charity, the Marranos would give
charity, paying special attention to the poor marranos.8
Marrano communities have been discovered worldwide. A group called the Karaites has
shown up all over Europe and now even in Israel. This tribe is a good example of how the
Jewish traditions changed as generations passed on their heritage. For instance, at the
entrance to the synagogues of the Karaites, there are shoe horns so that people can
remove their shoes before prayer. This is a practice of Moslems, but not Jews. The
Karaites also do not separate milk from meat. Instead they interpret the saying "Thou
shalt not seethe a kid in it's mother's milk," to mean that they literally do not cook a
kid in it's mother's milk. These people also do not blow the shofar (ram's horn) on the
Jewish new year of Rosh Hashanah. Their calendar is different from the Jewish calendar.
Another interesting difference is that the Orthodox Rabbis determine the religion of a
child by his/her mother's religion. Yet the Karaites determine the religion by the
father's religion. One can see from the Karaites, how the religion changes when the
Marranos were forced into hiding.9
Now with an understanding of the Marrano's situation, we can begin to discuss their
immigration to America. Before this immigration is detailed, there must first be an
understanding that the secrecy of the Marranos does lead to some varying interpretations
of their immigration. The Marranos , by the 1600's, had been keeping their religious
beliefs secret for over 100 years. At this point, many of their customs had become
transformed, and were no longer as fortified as before. Many kept only a few customs, and
those customs were a combination of Jewish and Catholic customs. Therefore, tracing the
immigration of the Marranos has proven to be a difficult task. The only way of assurance
that one was a Marrano was a detailed history of one's family. This was even more
difficult to determine since later generations rarely spoke of their Marrano families or
they just plain forgot about their past. We must therefore rely on scattered pieces of
historical information and assumptions to trace the progression of immigration of
Marranos into America.
It is certain that the first Marranos to enter America, arrived in New Mexico and Texas.
This is of course because these were the territories that the Spanish began to colonize.
The Marranos saw New Mexico as a type of safe haven, away from the inquisitors of
Mexico.10 Many believe that the Marrano's ability to hide their identity definitely
out-weighed the power of the inquisitors to investigate each person entering the new
territory.
There are two main types of evidence of Marrano existence in New Mexico. These are
genealogical and speculative. The genealogical evidence stems from present day Jews who
have traced back their ancestry to Mexicans in the 1600's. But this type of evidence is
wary because most of the Marrano beliefs has been lost through the generations.
The speculative evidence is what has convinced researchers that Marranos did indeed
settle in America and still exist today. This speculative evidence stems from random
occurrences of practices foreign to a specific religion. This evidence began to arise
during the late 1800's. It was during this time that missionaries in New Mexico were
speaking to some young Hispanics. The missionaries noticed that the only stories the
youths knew from the bible were stories of the Old Testament. A more recent occurrence
was in New Mexico in 1979. A woman was at a Doctor's appointment and the doctor noticed
that she wore a Jewish Star of David around her neck. When he asked her about it, she
responded that her mother had given it to her on her deathbed, asking her to "return to
the old religion." There is recorded history that a family in New Mexico today still
believes in their Jewish religion and they still light candles for Moses as a saint. This
is an excellent example of how Jewish beliefs were combined with Christian beliefs. Moses
is from the Jewish bible, yet the act of lighting candles for a saint bares evidence of
Christian customs. Even present day Catholics in New Mexico have memories of playing with
"dreidels" when they were young. This reveals a memory of celebrating the Jewish holiday
of Chanukah.11
Temple Albert in Albuquerque claims to have approximately 15 Marrano members. The only
problem is that these members have no traceable past. Along the Rio Grande in Texas other
evidence of Marrano existence has surfaced. Some families eat unleavened bread during
Lent, which is close the time of Passover. A Russian Orthodox Priest, Rev. Symeon
Carmona, knew about his Jewish heritage since he was twelve years old. He remembers in
detail his family's secret observance of Jewish law. His mother's way of preparing food
and the act of lighting candles on the Sabbath are just a few of his vivid memories of
his Marrano past. He estimates that there are at least 1500 families in New Mexico who
are still keeping their Jewish past hidden.12
The story of the Marranos is a tale of tragedy and a tale of triumph. One could never
imagine having their identity stripped from them at the threat of death. One can never
imagine having to be someone who you really were not, only to be hiding the truth. The
Marranos had to live with the daily threat of annihilation. They were forced to stray
away from their G-d, who was the only one left to turn to. The Jews ran from
anti-Semitism, from Europe to Mexico and then to America. By the grace of G-d, they were
able to come out alive and still holding on to their precious religion. The Marranos are
the example of how religion intermingles into American culture. They reveal the dangers
of assimilation and triumph to hold on to your past. The Marranos never forgot. They made
every attempt to be the Jews that generations before had been . And as long as there is
one child in America who knows of their Marrano past and is proud to be Jewish, the
Marranos did indeed win their battle.
1 Roth, Cecil. A History of the Marranos. New York: Schocken Books, 1974. pp. 30-45
2 ibid., pp. 271
3 Liebman, Seymour B. The Jews in New Spain. Miami: University of Miami Press, 1970.
pp. 106-112
4 Roth, Cecil. A History of the Marranos. New York: Schocken Books, 1974. pp. 282
5 Liebman, Seymour B. The Jews in New Spain. Miami: University of Miami Press, 1970.
pp. 64-68
6 Roth, Cecil. A History of the Marranos. New York: Schocken Books, 1974. pp. 170-180
7 Liebman, Seymour B. The Jews in New Spain. Miami: University of Miami Press, 1970.
pp. 75-76
8 ibid., pp. 73-75
9 Ross, Dan. Acts of Faith. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1982. pp. 120-140
10 Tobias, Henry J. A History of the Jews in New Mexico. Albuquerque: University of New
Mexico Press, 1990. pp. 10
11 ibid., pp. 18-19
12 ibid., pp. 20
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