The Ninth Of Av In Spain
The Crypto Jews of Old Mexico. After the expulsions of 1492 from Spain and 1497 from Portugal, thousands of Jews faced a terrible choice: convert, die, or flee. Many chose a fourth path — outward conversion while keeping the flame of Torah alive in secret. These conversos or crypto-Jews carried their hidden faith across the Atlantic into the Spanish colonies, including the vast territory known as Nueva España — Old Mexico.
Life in colonial Mexico offered both opportunity and danger. The promise of new lands, mining wealth, and distance from the Iberian Inquisitions drew many New Christians northward. Some rose to positions of influence as merchants, miners, soldiers, and even governors. Yet the Holy Office of the Inquisition followed them. Established in Mexico City in 1571, it hunted “Judaizers” — those suspected of secretly observing Jewish law while outwardly living as Catholics.
The most famous and heartbreaking story belongs to the Carvajal family. Luis de Carvajal y de la Cueva, a Portuguese converso and conquistador, was appointed governor of the new province of Nuevo León. He invited relatives from Portugal to join him. Among them was his nephew, Luis de Carvajal the Younger (“El Mozo”), a brilliant and devout young man who kept a secret memoir recording their hidden Jewish life.
The Shabbat of Creation
The Carvajals observed Shabbat as best they could, lit candles on Friday nights in hidden corners, avoided pork, kept Passover, and taught their children the Shema in secret. When discovered, the family endured arrest, torture, and public humiliation. In the great auto-da-fé of 1596 in Mexico City, several Carvajals — including the young Luis — were burned at the stake for refusing to abandon their faith. Their courage and writings remain some of the most powerful surviving testimonies of crypto-Jewish life in the New World.
Yet the Carvajals were not alone. Across Nueva España, from Mexico City to the silver mines of Zacatecas and the northern frontiers, crypto-Jewish communities practiced their faith in whispers. Women often became the guardians of tradition, passing down customs, prayers, and dietary laws from mother to daughter. Men sometimes gathered in secret minyanim. Surnames we still recognize today — Otero, Montoya, Lucero, Díaz, Carvajal, and many others — appear in Inquisition records.
Hidden Jews Until This Day
Over time, many families moved farther north to escape the reach of the Inquisition. The rugged lands of Nuevo León, Coahuila, and what is now northern Mexico and the American Southwest became places of greater safety. There, hidden Jewish practices could survive for generations in remote villages and ranches. Some families maintained endogamy, certain holiday observances, or private rituals long after the official Inquisition ended in the early 19th century.
Today, descendants across northern Mexico, New Mexico, Texas, and the broader Southwest are rediscovering these roots. DNA studies have revealed Middle Eastern and Sephardic markers in some Hispanic populations. Family stories of “not eating pork,” lighting candles on Friday nights “for the grandmothers,” or avoiding certain foods on specific days are being re-examined in light of history. Genealogy projects and books are helping families connect the dots between their Spanish and Portuguese ancestors and the Jewish people they once were forced to hide.
Texas, New Mexico, Colorado
This history is not distant from our own story. The same currents that brought crypto-Jews to Old Mexico also carried them — and their descendants — into the lands that would become the United States. The hidden flames of Nueva España helped light the path toward the north, contributing to the settlement and character of the American Southwest. In reclaiming these stories, we join the great return prophesied in Isaiah: the hidden ones coming home.
The crypto-Jews of Old Mexico were not merely victims. They were keepers of memory. In the face of fear and persecution, they chose to remember — quietly, courageously, generation after generation. Their story is part of the larger miracle of Jewish survival and of the Jewish contribution to the New World.
As we continue to trace our own lines — through Portugal, Spain, Mexico, and into Texas — we honor them. We remember the Carvajals and thousands like them who refused to let the light go out. And we give thanks that, in this generation, many are finally able to say openly what their ancestors could only whisper:
Shema Yisrael… We are still here.
Overview Of The Jews from Spain/ Portugal
The Carvajal family is one of the most famous and well-documented crypto-Jewish (secretly Jewish) families in the New World. They were part of the wave of conversos (forced converts from Judaism to Catholicism) who came to Mexico after the 1492 expulsion from Spain and the 1497 expulsion from Portugal. Many continued to practice Judaism in secret.
Key Figures in Crypto Jewish History
1. Luis de Carvajal y de la Cueva (the Elder / “El Viejo”) (~1540–1591)
- Portuguese converso born in Mogodouro, Portugal.
- Conquistador, explorer, and slave trader.
- In 1579, the Spanish crown appointed him governor and captain-general of the new province of Nuevo Reino de León (roughly modern Nuevo León in northern Mexico, plus parts of Texas and New Mexico).
- He founded settlements (including near present-day Cerralvo) and brought dozens of family members and associates from Iberia to the New World.
- He appears to have been a sincere Catholic, but many in his extended family were crypto-Jews.
2. Luis de Carvajal the Younger (“El Mozo”) (1566–1596)
- Nephew of the Elder.
- Born in Benavente, Spain (some sources say the Portuguese region).
- Arrived in Mexico around 1580 with his mother, Francisca Núñez de Carvajal, and siblings.
- Became a spiritual leader among crypto-Jews in New Spain.
- Wrote a remarkable secret memoir (one of the earliest known Jewish writings in the Americas) describing his inner spiritual life, dreams, commitment to Torah, and efforts to strengthen other crypto-Jews.
- Arrested by the Inquisition in 1589. He initially “reconciled” (feigned repentance) but continued practicing Judaism in secret.
- Arrested again, tortured, and executed by garrote and then burning at the stake on December 8, 1596, during a major auto-da-fé in Mexico City. His mother and several sisters were executed with him.
The Inquisition Crackdown
In the late 1580s and 1590s, the Mexican Inquisition launched a major campaign against crypto-Jews. The Carvajal family became a central target. Dozens of people connected to them were arrested. The 1596 auto-da-fé was one of the largest public executions of crypto-Jews in the Americas. The family’s case is exceptionally well-documented because of Luis the Younger’s writings and the detailed Inquisition records (procesos).
Why They Matter in Crypto-Jewish History
- They represent the tension between outward Catholicism and inner Jewish practice.
- Luis the Younger’s memoir gives rare firsthand insight into the spiritual world of 16th-century crypto-Jews.
- Their story shows how crypto-Jewish networks operated throughout Mexico, especially in more remote northern areas such as Nuevo León.
- Many descendants of these families later moved farther north into what is now the American Southwest, carrying hidden traditions.
Why Nuevo León Matters
Nuevo León was founded in the late 16th century by Luis de Carvajal y de la Cueva, a Portuguese converso (crypto-Jew) who became the province’s governor. He actively brought relatives and other New Christian families from Portugal and Spain to settle the northern frontier. Many of these families practiced Judaism in secret while outwardly living as Catholics.
Because the region was remote and far from the main seat of the Inquisition in Mexico City, it became a relative haven for crypto-Jews. Families could maintain hidden traditions — Friday night candle lighting, avoiding pork, observing Passover and other holidays privately, endogamy, and passing down memory from generation to generation — with somewhat less risk than in central Mexico.
The Carvajal family’s dramatic story (which we discussed) unfolded partly in this northern territory. Many other converso families with surnames such as Ramírez, Díaz, Otero, Sánchez, Montoya, Vigil, García, Jiménez, and Lucero settled in or moved through Nuevo León. Over time, some branches continued northward into what is now Texas and New Mexico, carrying their hidden heritage with them.
Beit Midrash Beit Hashoavah
My grandfather, Luz Ramírez Díaz, from Nuevo León, being a Cohen, is a profound and beautiful piece of the story I am reclaiming.
In Jewish tradition, the Kohanim (priests) are the direct descendants of Aaron, brother of Moses. For centuries, many crypto-Jewish families in Spain, Portugal, and the New World preserved this identity in secret — sometimes through the surname itself, sometimes through family memory, and, in modern times, through Y-DNA testing that reveals the classic Cohen Modal Haplotype or related priestly markers.
The fact that my grandfather carried this priestly lineage from Nuevo León — one of the key northern provinces where crypto-Jews found relative safety and continued their hidden practices — fits perfectly with everything in history.
- The long chain of converso and crypto-Jewish survival through Portugal, Spain, and Old Mexico.
- The movement northward into the borderlands.
- My own calling is Hazan Gavriel ben David — a cantor and spiritual leader serving a beit midrash and teaching Torah in prison.
- My passion for writings on the “priestly light” that continued through hiding, expulsion, and return.
This also resonates with the genealogical work that my cousin Dr.Dennis Otero has shared, which traces lines back through Exilarchs and ancient Jewish leadership. My Cohen grandfather in Nuevo León adds another living link in that chain.
Many descendants in northern Mexico and the American Southwest are only now discovering or reclaiming their Cohen or Levite ancestry after generations of secrecy. My grandfather’s identity is part of that quiet, resilient transmission.
The Tallit Over the Land
Jews from South and East, Woven into Blessing — Look to Abraham Your Father and Sarah Your Mother
“Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you; for he was but one when I called him, but I blessed him and made him many.” — Isaiah 51:2
We are the children of Abraham and Sarah. Scattered, hidden, persecuted, and yet still here — still weaving threads of light across this land.
Picture a tallit spread over the continent. Its white fabric is the purity of the covenant. Its tzitzit — the fringes — are the commandments that reach down and touch the earth. Every knot, every twist, every thread tells a story. Some threads came from the south, carried in secret by crypto-Jews who fled the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal. Others came from the east, brought by later Jewish immigrants who crossed oceans in search of freedom. Together, they have helped clothe this nation in values that ultimately trace back to Sinai.
Zion to Luz in Nuevo Leon
From the south came families like the Carvajals, who settled in Nuevo León under the very governor who bore their name. Luis de Carvajal the Younger left us one of the earliest Jewish writings in the Americas — a secret memoir written while living under constant threat. His family and thousands like them practiced Judaism in whispers: lighting candles on Friday nights behind closed doors, avoiding pork, and keeping Passover in secret.
They suffered at the hands of those who had once been their neighbors and “friends” in Iberia. The Inquisition, run by the same Catholic society that had forced their conversion, hunted them, tortured them, and burned some at the stake in great public autos-da-fé. Yet even in that suffering, seeds were planted. Many of their descendants moved north, helping settle the borderlands that would become Texas and New Mexico.
The Priestly Blessing
My own grandfather, Luz Ramírez Díaz from Nuevo León, carried this priestly (Cohen) line. On the other side of the family, Levite heritage flowed. Two priestly flames — Cohen and Levi — meet in one bloodline across this land.
From the east came other Jewish threads — Ashkenazi and Sephardi immigrants who arrived in later centuries, building synagogues, businesses, schools, and institutions. They too faced prejudice, quotas, and exclusion. Yet they helped shape American medicine, science, law, commerce, and culture far beyond their numbers. Like their crypto-Jewish cousins from the south, they often suffered at the hands of societies that had once welcomed or tolerated them, only to turn against them later.
Praying for Our Nations
Still, they helped.
They helped write the moral grammar of this nation and helped plant the ideas of justice, liberty under law, and compassion for the stranger — ideas that flow from the same Torah that Abraham and Sarah received. They helped build universities, hospitals, and industries. Jews served in every war. They stood for civil rights. They contributed to Nobel Prizes and scientific breakthroughs at rates wildly disproportionate to their population. The tallit they wove — sometimes openly, sometimes in secret — has covered this land with blessing.
You Must Be Bound To 613 To Be Free
We have been scattered like the tzitzit, yet the knots still hold. Jews have been burned, expelled, and forced to hide, yet the light has continued. We have been hurt by those we once called friends — in Iberia, in Europe, and sometimes even here — yet we have still given. That is the story of Abraham and Sarah’s children: called when we were few, blessed when we were small, and made into a multitude that still carries light.
This land — America — has been touched by both southern and eastern Jewish threads. Crypto-Jews from Mexico and the borderlands helped open and settle the Southwest. Later Jewish immigrants from the east helped build the cities, the institutions, and the intellectual life of the nation. Together, they have helped make this country what it is at its best.
So let us look to Abraham our father and Sarah our mother, as Isaiah commands. Let us remember the rock from which we were hewn. And let us continue weaving — openly now — the tallit and tzitzit of Torah, justice, and compassion across this land. Not because we are perfect, but because we were called. Not because we have never suffered, but because even in suffering we have still chosen to bless.
May the fringes of our lives continue to touch the corners of this earth with holiness. May the children of Abraham and Sarah never forget who they are. And may this land continue to be blessed by the threads we have woven — south and east, hidden and revealed — for the sake of Heaven.
Hazan Gavriel ben David
Key Takeaways
- The Crypto Jews of Old Mexico maintained their faith in secret after expulsions from Spain and Portugal in the late 15th century.
- The Carvajal family is a significant example, facing persecution but documenting their Jewish life through memoirs.
- Crypto Jewish communities thrived in Nueva España, preserving traditions quietly and often passing knowledge through generations.
- Descendants in northern Mexico and the American Southwest are rediscovering their Jewish heritage and practices today.
- Crypto Jews contributed to the broader tapestry of American identity while enduring and surviving persecution.
