The Secret Society: Descendants of Crypto-Jews in the San Antonio ...

different from the other Hispanic people she knew, but after researching her ancestors she
realized the traditions must be Jewish.
During her childhood Mary realized her family practiced some odd customs,
specifically her father would not allow pork in the house. She states, “It never really hit
me on the head until I realized he bought kosher meat whenever he could.” When asked
about the buying of kosher meat her father would reply, “Because the rabbi said so.”
Despite her father’s kosher diet and his relatives’ traditions, he never admitted to the
Jewish background and “has really turned on it.” As for other family traditions, Laura
states, “My great grandmother always marked the death date of her husband by lighting a
candle, and on Friday nights she lit two candles. When asked about the candles, she
explained that her mother had done so, as had her grandmother.”
Both Mary and Laura converted to Judaism under the tutelage of the late Rabbi
Samuel Lerer in 2004. Rabbi Lerer is well known in the crypto-Jewish circles and was a
pioneer in the field. Towards the end of his life, Rabbi Lerer spent his time converting
3,000 crypto-Jews back to Judaism in Mexico and South Texas. The Krauses are
currently members of Temple Beth-El Reform synagogue in San Antonio, and Mary says,
“I literally could not find peace until I found Judaism.” Laura wrote in the online Jewish
magazine, New Voices, “my mother and I are just two of the many crypto-Jews who are
unearthing and embracing our roots every day. Our identity is no longer hush-hush.”
Arturo Martinez 41
Arturo Martinez is a native of the San Antonio area and is currently attending St.
Mary’s Law school. He practiced Catholicism all his life; however is descended from
crypto-Jews on both his mother’s side, who have lived in San Antonio since the late
1770’s, and his father’s side, who have lived in the area since 1912. After the expulsion
in 1492, his mother’s side of the family traveled to Portugal, then the Canary Islands, and
ultimately the New World in the late 1500’s. Martinez states in response to his mother’s
line, the de la Garzas, “According to the Spanish tax rolls, there were six Jewish families
in the town of Lepe, Spain in 1450. (in Andalusia on the coast near the Portuguese
Border). Of these 6 unnamed families 5 are known to have come to Nuevo Leon and I
am descendent from all 5. There are also other Jewish lines, including Trevino, de
Faria(s) that come from other towns, but eventually marry into the Jewish circle in and
around Monterrey.” Incidentally, Mary and Laura Kraus are also related to the de la
Garza line.
His family still practices the Jewish traditions that have been passed down from
generation to generation; however Martinez “never thought of them as Jewish traditions,
but rather as family traditions.” It was common for his family to practice some kosher
laws such as abstaining from eating pork and killing a chicken by decapitation instead of
strangulation (this allowed the blood to drain from the body). Around Easter his family
would eat a special type of bread pudding containing raisins and nuts called capirotada.
Crypto-Jews ate capirotada in replacement as the Passover dish of haroset, but it was
made into a bread pudding to trick the inquisitors. 42 As for funerary practices the family
would mourn for an entire year and wore black and did not attend parties or other social
41 Arturo Martinez, Interviewed by author, email, 26 October 2006.
42 The Passover dish of haroset is made with nuts, apples, and raisins and represents the mortar used to
build the temples in Egypt.
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