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

escape to the North. Similarly, a more modern problem in dealing with San Antonio is that it
is a large metropolitan area that receives many converso migrants from other areas of
Southern Texas and Northern Mexico, especially the city of Monterrey and rural areas. Due
to the city’s Hispanic culture, San Antonio can be very inviting and attractive to those
coming from the border region in this generation. When talking with the people in the
community it is obvious that more crypto-Jewish traditions are seen in these recent migrants
to San Antonio.
A voice must be given to the descendants of crypto-Jews so they will be able to
openly discover their identity. If actions are not taken to document these crypto-Jewish
traditions then this past, which has survived for the last five centuries, will be lost in the next
generation in the greater San Antonio area. More times than most, Hispanic people in the
community remember only a single family tradition that connects them to crypto-Judaism;
soon this too will disappear. The middle-aged people who come forward with knowledge of
the traditions usually are not practicing them, but remember something strange their
grandparents or great grandparents did. As technology is becoming more advanced, and San
Antonio being a very modern city, family traditions are being replaced by an American
culture that emphasizes unification and uniformity. It is important to document these
traditions now, before it is too late.
The Hispanic identity and Jewish identity are very complex and are made from
different overlapping layers; this was written in the hopes that one more layer will be
accepted in both cultures.
Works Citied
Arturo. Interviewed by author. Email, 26 October 2006.
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Beinart, Haim. The Expulsion of the Jews From Spain. Oxford: The Littman Library of
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Cohen, Martin A. The Martyr: The story of a secret Jew and the Mexican Inquisition in the
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Frankel, Ellen and Betsy Plankin Teutsch. The Encyclopedia of Jewish Symbols. New
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Garcia, Roi Interviewed by author. San Antonio, Texas, 23 May 2006.
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Kraus, Laura. 2005. Nothing Secret About Crypto Jews: Coming Out of the Judaic Closet in
San Antonio. New Voices. December 2005. http://www.newvoices.org/cgibin/articlepageprint.cgi?id=504
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Kraus, Mary and Laura. Interviewed by author. San Antonio, Texas, 26 November 2006.
Liebman, Seymour B. New World Jewry, 1493-1825: Requiem for the Forgotten. New
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