Converso Descendants in the American Southwest: A Report on Research, Resources, and the Changing Search for Identity
by
Seth Ward University of Denver (Colorado, USA)
Reprinted from Proceedings of the 1998 Conference of the European Association for Jewish Studies, ed. Angel Saenz-Badillos. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1999, pp. 677-86.
(I have been at the University of Wyoming since January 2003. This article was on my University of Denver website over a decade ago. I know it has been reprinted elsewhere. I am trying to recover some of the articles and essays that I posted at that time. In some cases the ravages of computer failures and advancing technology have made them inaccessible in the electronic formats I have saved myself, so I am trying to find them in some cases via archive.org, reposting them here and/or at http://uwyo.edu/sward.) I have not edited this at all, except such procedures as removing superfluous spaces and fixing some errors introduced by migrating the file. I was not able to fix all such errors correctly.)
Over the past fifteen years or so, journalistic and academic publications have carried articles about the survival of “Crypto-Jewish” family practices and traditions in New Mexico, U.S.A. and adjacent areas, and about individuals with roots in these areas who have become increasingly open about their “Jewish” or “Crypto-Jewish” identity. For members of the Jewish community, this reawakened awareness and openness is a kibbutz galuyot, a “coming together of exiles,” allowing distant relatives to rekindle links, and giving the topic of the “Secret Jews of the American Southwest” tremendous power and popularity. It combines interest in North American Jewish history with the U.S. Jewish community’s continuing focus on anti-Semitism-in this case reflected back as interest in the Inquisition and its horrors-and the romance of Jewish survival against all odds.
Curiously, a somewhat essentialist approach to descent and genealogy is frequently highly valued among both researchers and crypto-Jews: “Jewish ancestry makes someone a Jew.” This attitude is common enough in some contexts within the American Jewish community but stands in stark contrast to its well-known worry about whether their grandchildren will be Jews; many who claim crypto-Jewish descent are far more worried about whether their distant ancestors were Jews.
To my mind, the issue of identity has been inadequately or improperly addressed in the research. But before looking at the research and at these issues, we need to briefly review -to the extent space permits-the size and names given to the phenomenon, its “foundation narrative,” and some of the elements cited in support of the “Crypto-Jewish” identification.
Name and size for the phenomenon
It is not clear that there is a standard name to describe the contemporary phenomenon and its provenance, although “Crypto-Jews of the contemporary American Southwest” or “… of contemporary New Mexico” appears to be most common. Other terms are known: “Sephardic Jewish legacy” (Hordes 1993) or even “Southwestern Jews” (Neulander 1994:26); the term judios “Jews” is also encountered within the tradition, and some individuals refer to themselves as Sephardim or Sefarditas, sometimes in contradistinction not only to Ashkenazim but to Jews in general. Tomas Atencio uses the local term “Manito,” a “shortened diminutive of Hermano,” to refer “to New Mexico’s Indohispanos and Indohispanas whose historical threads are anchored in the Colonial period.” But he refers to “Crypto-Jews” among the Manitos (Atencio 1996). Others prefer “anusim,” (sometimes without differentiation of singular and plural, e.g., “She is an anusim” (e.g. Sandoval 1996). Anusim is of course the typical Hebrew name for Marranos and has been favored in other communities and by some scholars. “Marrano” is also used by some to refer to their community as a mark of honor, not of shame. “Crypto-Jews” or “Secret Jews,” however, seems to be the most well-known term.
One of the first publications about the New Mexico phenomenon used the term Converso descendants (Nidel 1984:257), a term which is academically attractive as neutral, uncontroversial and descriptive. But few if any inside the community refer to themselves as Conversos or New Christians, and some appear to find this nomenclature offensive or problematic. It is rarely encountered in the literature.
Provenance: While the core population seems to have links to villages from central New Mexico to southern Colorado, many discussions of the phenomenon include areas along both banks of the Rio Grande south into Texas, especially around El Paso, and in what is today northern Mexico. “New Mexico,” “American Southwest” and several other terms are used more or less interchangeably. Many, however, find it difficult not to include individuals from northern Mexico, Cuba or indeed the entire Spanish speaking world, although presumably speaking only of the New Mexican population.
Size: The New Christian community probably reached its heyday in the seventeenth century. The late J.R. Marcus suggested that there were 20,000 Europeans in 17th century Mexico, including parts which are now within the United States about a tenth of them New Christians. (Fierman, 1987:7). Of course, it seems likely that the overwhelming majority of Conversos were not “Crypto-Jews” and were not able to or not desirous of passing along meaningful components of an explicitly Jewish way of life (Fierman, 1987:16, citing Greenleaf).
Tobias relates that in the late 1980’s, Reverend Carmona estimated there were some 1500 families in New Mexico who were part of this tradition (Tobias, 1990:19). Few others have ventured any reliable guesses about contemporary numbers.
One 1996 study, based on a small sample of 28 came up with astounding statistics about Jewish identification. Over a quarter of her sample has formally converted and 60% of those who have not converted nevertheless report attending Jewish services and celebrating holidays (Jacobs 1996). The sample is tiny and based on unscientific affinity group and “snowball sampling” (i.e. various organizations recommend subjects who in turn recommend others). Moreover, just over 40% report descent from Spanish colonial settlers in New Mexico; the rest were themselves born in Mexico and have moved to the area. Jacobs does not comment on whether the converts were Mexican or New Mexican, or on the difficulty of focusing on a single geographical provenance. Nevertheless, these numbers clearly reflect sampling idiosyncrasies, and boldly underscore the identity issue.
Foundation Narrative
The “foundation narrative” of this phenomenon-the story participants and some researchers tell about the history of New Mexico Crypto-Judaism-starts in the 16th and 17th centuries, when many New Christians or their immediate descendants came to the northernmost parts of New Spain to seek their fortune along the frontier. They settled along the Rio Grande, its tributary creeks and upland villages, from El Paso northward to what is today New Mexico and southern Colorado. Some chose this remote area because they worried they might become targets for the Inquisition, either because they were Judaizers or simply because they were “New Christians.” Others came because opportunity knocked-in the form of a colonial settlement expedition which had obtained a release from the usual requirement of limiting participation to those with pure Old-Christian bloodlines (Hordes 1996:82ff). Among those who came to this region were members of families known to have Judaized, such as sons of Luis de Carvajal. According to this foundation narrative, these families married primarily among themselves, maintaining their identity to the present day.
Traditional Practices Associated with the New-Mexican Crypto-Judaism
According to the foundation narrative, some families lost all knowledge of any Jewish heritage, traditions, or practices. Nevertheless, some of their descendants today are aware of the history of Judaism in Spain, and the presence of many converso descendants in the early Spanish settlement in the region. Many contemporary New Mexico Hispanos believe and in some cases have demonstrated that their ancestors include individuals who were prosecuted by the Inquisition for loyalty to the “Law of Moses.” Other families appear to have kept alive traditions describing their families as “Jewish,” and still others maintained practices or traditions which have come to be associated with the phenomenon, although without glossing them as Jewish in any way. Space permits only a limited review of the practices and traditions associated with this phenomenon.
Names: Many reports indicate that both given names and family names are a source of identification as Crypto-Jews. Florence Hernández has counted about 143 surnames believed to be part of this phenomenon. (1993:419-20). She notes, however, that most of these names were “taken from Christian sponsors,” i.e., they were Old Christians names as well. Given names may be a more reliable support for a Crypto-Jewish background. Hernandez lists such names as Sara, Raquel, Rosa, and Betsab , for women and Aron, Abrán, Adán, Efren, Eliséo, Jacobo, and others for men. “Adonay” is sometimes used as a given name, paralleling the use of “Jesus” as a popular given name among Hispanos. This would be anathema to traditional Jews, of course. Although most of these personal and family names are well attested outside the New Mexico group, the presence of “Adonay” and of Old Testament names to the exclusion of Gospel would be striking in any Hispano context. It is also easier to trace than many of the practices, possibly allowing some historical perspective, but conversely is also easily open to alternative explanations (e.g. Neulander 1996).
Rejection of Christian or Catholic Practices: Some individuals report a parent advised them that they were not really Christians, or that they never went to church, or were not baptized or waited as long as possible to be baptized, or never took communion or were not confirmed. Some report they were advised not to pray to Jesus and “not to worship Saints,” or trinity but to concentrate only on God” (Hernandez 1993:423, Halevy 1996:69). As in the case of the personal names, some note an emphasis on Hebrew Bible stories to the exclusion of New Testament stories. A sense that they were “different” from the mass of Catholic Hispanos may be included within this theme.
Sabbath Observances: The most common and striking observance reported is lighting candles Friday night, although often without considering it a “Jewish” practice. Typical reports note women lit candles in bowls in an interior part of the house, or that draperies were drawn (Hernandez 1993:423). Other Saturday-Sabbath reports note that the men did not go to church on Sunday but gathered in a building or in the fields on Saturday, or that the men worked on Sunday but not on Saturday.
Food Practices: The avoidance of pork is frequently mentioned; so is slaughter in which the neck was slit by a knife checked for sharpness, and the carcass allowed to hang upside down until all the blood drained out. In a case attested by Neulander, the wife of the informant family nevertheless collected the blood to make morcellina (1996:27). This is a familiar archetype in many contemporary Jewish families: despite a desire on the part of one parent to observe “as much as possible” of kashrut, the other one prepares or brings home clearly non-kosher treats. Some recall avoiding meat with milk, not eating eggs with blood-spots, soaking, salting and soaking the meat, and covering the blood of slaughtered animals with dirt (Halevy 1996:69-71). Use of Kosher wine is also reported: Marie Quintana Snowden wrote me that her family’s only Christmas custom was to share a glass of Mogen David Wine (Personal communication, 1998). Isabel Sandoval recalls her family used kosher wine, with a picture on the label of a family sitting around a table wearing funny little hats. Her mother also prepared her own chokecherry wine although she was a member of churches which prohibited wine drinking. (1996:77-8).
Holiday Observances: Playing a gambling game with a top, sometimes called pon y saca “Put in and take out” (Hordes 93:137) often cited as a Hanukkah-like practice, as is lighting one more candle or luminaria bonfire each night, starting over a week before Christmas, so that there are 9 flames at Christmas. The observance of a feast or fast in honor of “Esther” is often cited. Baking of pan de semita “semitic bread” is reported at Easter, a heavy bread that did not rise. Some of the reports-e.g. Mrs. Snowden’s wine-sharing-may indicate that practices, if they are to be explained as “Crypto-Jewish” were transferred to a different season or occasion, others seem at best to have been corrupted by or understood in the light of normative (i.e. “non-crypto-) Jewish practice.
Language: One of the first individuals to come to my attention in Denver, a Spanish teacher, noted that the Spanish in Erensia Sefardi resembled her village Spanish more than Castillian, Mexican or any of the Latin American dialects. Indeed, some refer to the distinctive dialect of the New Mexico villages as “Ladino,” but any assessment of this issue is beyond our scope here.
Other traditions include gathering nail clippings, sweeping to the center of a room, next day burial, mourning for a year, bathing after contact with the dead, covering the mirrors in a house of mourning, leaving pebbles on graves, and circumcision. Much is sometimes made of the presence of “Star of David” motifs on gravestones and in churches. Neulander notes (1996:29-31) that the hexagram was a Christian symbol as well as a Jewish one and that Scholem has shown that it did not become a universal marker of Judaism until modern times. (Although Neulander correctly read Scholem, she nevertheless did not cite Scholem’s references to medieval Jewish hexagrams (1971:269)
Genetic: In testing of 18 patients in El Paso and New Mexico associated with a rare genetic disease, it was found that 12 of 13 hispano patients had “genome and protein sequencing associated with Jewish patients” (Hordes 1996:89). Hordes does not say here whether this relates the hispanos to Ashkenazim or to Sephardic Jews, and the extent to which this relates to observed cultural practices, or any other genetic testing; presumably these issues will be addressed in a medically-oriented report which is being published.
Many or indeed most of the elements cited in the literature as identifying “Crypto-Jewish” practices are problematic. Merely identifying Jewish parallels, or for that matter Protestant or Ashkenazi sources, is only part of the story.
Research Literature and Resources
Looking at the research literature as a whole, one notes that prior to the early 1980’s, there may have been some hints of awareness of aspects of Jewish identity among families of colonial Spanish heritage in New Mexico, but essentially the phenomenon was unknown and unreported. Hordes did not begin to note these contemporary survivals until after he had completed his 1980 Ph.D. dissertation on Crypto-Jews on seventeenth century New Spain (Hordes 1996), and the New Mexico phenomenon goes unmentioned by Patai (1996 rpt), or in popular works such as Ross’s Acts of Faith. (1982).
There were some earlier indications of awareness of these traditions, to be sure. Some Rabbis reported inquiries. Tobias recounts items from the 1880’s and just prior to 1920 in which there seems to have been awareness of Jewish heritage (Tobias 1990:20). Fray Angelico Chßvez was certainly aware of the New Christian heritage of many families descended from Spanish-period colonials, and perhaps reflected on the continuing meaningfulness of this heritage in comments on the similarity of his New Mexico homeland to ancient Palestine. (1954, 1974). Given that assertions have been made that Jewish heritage and the survival of customs associated with it was unknown even within the New Mexico community itself, it will probably be useful to gather and analyze as many pre-1980’s references as possible.
Although preceded by research on southern Texas “Chicano Jews” (Larralde 1978, Santos 1983), the first articles specifically relating to New Mexico Crypto-Judaism began to appear in the 1980’s. Nidel (1984) published on the New Mexican phenomenon, and Blake wrote a manuscript on “Secret Signs of Judaism in New Mexico,” which has never been published (Tobias 1990:195).
After 1985, there seems to have been growing awareness in research and journalism. Halevy has a lengthy list of journalistic articles on the subject stretching back to 1985 (1996:75, fn 1). Hordes has published several articles, most recently an illustrated overview in the Journal of the West. Tomas Atencio and Stanley Hordes published a 35-page prospectus for a research project on “The Sephardic legacy of New Mexico” (1987). Roger Parks studied lingustic traits (1988). In 1987, Floyd Fierman’s Roots and Boots discussed many aspects of Crypto-Judaism in New Mexico in the sixteenth century, but has only a little to say about it in the twentieth. He calls Angelico Chßvez’s assertion that his ancestors were Crypto-Jews “charming” (1987:16) but does not dismiss such claims (143). In 1990, Tobias’ History of the Jews of New Mexico, gave a fair but brief description-although to be sure, within the context of a discussion of New Mexico’s primarily Ashkenazic Jewish community. The importance and visibility of this motif took a giant leap when Cohen and Peck’s Sephardim in the Americas included a full, descriptive chapter on “The Secret Jews of the Southwest” by Florence Hernßndez (1993). Janet Liebman Jacobs, cited above, is most interested finding evidence of women’s transmission of the tradition, a point made by others (e.g. Halevy, 1996), and is currently working on expanding her research, a series of field-work interviews. (Jacobs, 1996). Renee Levine Melammed is preparing a report on this phenomenon for the Israeli publication Peamim (personal communication).
Perhaps the most important set of articles on the subject is a series published in the Jewish Folklore and Ethnology Review (henceforth JFER). In 1993, Hordes published a brief note about his ongoing research in contemporary phenomena in JFER; the same volume also included an account of an Iglesia di Dios church in El Paso Texas, with many Jewish-like practices. In 1994, JFER published Judith S. Neulander’s “Crypto Jews of the American Southwest: An Imagined Community,” in which she described her attempt to do a professional ethnographic field study of this phenomenon, as a dissertation at the University of Indiana. Not surprisingly, she found that several elements prominently cited as part of a tradition of Crypto-Judaism were unsupportable as proof of its survival from Colonial times. G. Haskell, the editor of the JFER, reports that in response to this article he received “impassioned letters” from both sides: “The emotions on both sides were strong, and the Review, its editor, and the authors were vilified and demonized with vigor.” (JFER 1996:1) JFER decided to do a special issue dedicated to this phenomenon. The issue was dedicated to the memory of Raphael Patai, who had just died, and included reprints Patai’s two articles on Venta Prieta, a community near Mexico City which considered themselves to be Jewish. In addition to a second, much longer article by Neulander, there were pieces by Tomás Atencio, Schulamith C. Halevy, and Isabelle Medina Sandoval, a brief article by David M Gradwohl, a letter from Stanley Hordes, and two letters from individuals within the New Mexico Hispano community.
Neulander (1996) analyzed the theology and activities of millenaristic Protestant sects such as the Seventh Day Adventists and Church of God (Spanish: Iglesia di Dios) in great detail, which she believes provide explanations for several crypto-Jewish practices and traditions, and thus for the phenomenon as a whole. In this she follows Patai, who found just such a background for Venta Prieta, as shown in the reprinted articles. Neulander suggests the Iglesia di Dios model can even explain non-Biblical and highly “Hebraized” customs as lighting candles on Fridays.
In the other JFER pieces, Halevy also focuses on the practices, but concentrates on documenting Jewish sources for them in Mishna and Talmud, Shulhan Aruch, responsa of Moshe Hagiz, Ibn Habib and others. Tomás Atencio-one of the individuals described by Neulander as the “primary academic promoters” of the Crypto-Judaic idea-does not come across as a “true believer” in his JFER article. He notes that a “goal of the study, which is to uncover more information to make the hypothesis more plausible, has been partially accomplished [but] … has not gotten any closer to empirically verifying crypto-Jewish presence in New Mexico.” Dr. Sandoval’s contribution to this issue is essentially her own story; Gradwohl’s describes his initial skepticism but argues for “meaningful scholarly inquiry and civilized debate” (JFER 1996:84).
Some of those who read JFER may feel the editor himself was not totally above the fray, e.g., by the comparison implicit in his comment about those who accept claims about crypto-Judaism uncritically-“That Germans earlier in this century called themselves Aryans did not make it so”(JFER 1996:86)-or, more importantly, by titles allowed for Neulander’s articles and by reprinting Patai’s findings about similar claims made in a very different type of community. Nevertheless, JFER’s articles on the New Mexican phenomenon are well balanced. Haskell correctly noted that “Neulander does not presume to tell people who they are or are not.” But (as JFER found out) Neulander’s calling it “an imagined community” had a far stronger impact than had she merely said that a pure crypto-Jewish lineage for the canon elements cannot be supported. Like Patai’s work in Venta Prieta, her work carries a deep meaning for this population, even or perhaps especially if it is correct. Patai’s views seem to have been able to become accepted even within the Venta Prieta community, and may have helped them determine what relationship they want today with Judaism. Although he came to offer a radically different interpretation than they of the genesis of their practices, he did not imply their sense of community was imaginary. Neulander, on the other hand, has not yet and may never overcome the negativity and is perceived with some justice as having called scholars and informants prevaricators, i.e., liars (JFER 1996: 85, 86f.). Informants’ glosses of practices, even if “ethnographically unsupported” are not “lies” but a central key to their own systems of understanding; this is no less true if, as is almost always the case, “remembered” practices include some that were never quite as reported.
Some general comments Crypto-Jewish “foundation narrative” tends to exclude post-colonial influence and heritage elements, to project all elements back to the colonial period or to Spain, and to be articulated in unlikely terms of coherence and purity of culture and heritage, for example, among individuals with only partial Colonial-Jewish heritage (e.g. “My mother was French”) (In this it is similar to a general phenomenon observed in Santa Fe by Wilson, 1997:312-13). Some elements may indeed go back to secretly-Jewish New Christians, but even if one rejects Neulander’s Protestant explanations, some elements cited cannot be explained as uniquely Sephardic survivals or reflect mixing in of outside sources, at least in the way they are presented. Frequently one encounters Ashkenazic glosses-Purim cakes referred to as Hamentashen, top as dreidle, etc. Ashkenazim have been in New Mexico and northern Mexico for some 150 years, and it seems likely that there may have been some influence and modeling on what openly-Jewish individuals were doing, or from reading-those within the tradition always characterize it as intellectual. This process accelerated (or may even have only started) with the changes of the twentieth century, for several reasons: soldiers’ World War international experiences, the move from villages to towns and cities, the move from extended kinship/village groups to more nuclear families within much more heterogeneous communities, and greater access to a standardized “American” education. Neulander’s work also reminds us that especially in the past fifteen years, many terms and glosses adopted by contemporary informants may have been influenced in part by discussions with researchers and journalists, or by reading their reports.
The “canon of New Mexican Crypto-Judaism” is only a part of the story. It may be impossible-and ultimately irrelevant-to explain every last item as either Jewish, converso, Protestant or happenstance in origin. Such concentration on “are they Jews,”or “are their traditions Jewish” detracts from an important theme, an openness and interest in Judaism and in the Jewish part of the Spanish heritage. It is difficult to understate the degree to which this appears to be diametrically opposed to long-held attitudes, and it is a change which has taken place primarily in the last fifteen years. No doubt many claims of heritage, of survival of tradition, or of genealogical purity, are too grandiose, but the primacy given Judaic heritage and identity is striking. It may be misplaced to some outside observers, yet still must be understood and appreciated.
Many of the leading representatives of this group meet together at various formal and informal venues around the country. For many of them, joining the Jewish community represents four problems. One: Most Jewish communities would require them to undergo formal conversion. This rubs some as the wrong approach: “We have struggled hard to retain our Judaism-and we have to convert? Why can’t we be recognized for what we “are”?” The second problem is that for many Judaism-even merely a recognition of Jewish ancestry-represents a very strong break with family Catholicism or with New Mexican Hispano sensibilities. A third problem is theological: many cannot reject some sort of faith in Jesus; some have explored so-called “Messianic” Judaism as an alternative. Fourth, and related to the previous ones: for many the identification with Jews is genealogical and heritage oriented more than religious or cultural.
Research needs to focus also on the emerging community of individuals who are making these claims, seeking out the meaning to them of being Jewish, and ways in which they will-or will not-continue the tradition. We may never be able to paint a full picture of “traditional New Mexican Crypto-Judaism,” to determine the extent to which it reflects survival of the practices of earl;y colonial Judaizers, or even to prove it existed. It is perhaps impossibly complicated by the variety of practices and by issues of how practices are remembered. Yet let us not forget that the glossing of these practices as “Jewish” by a significant body of hispanos-in the New Mexico community and elsewhere-is truly an amazing story. Even if many of the reported elements of the canon are slippery and can be interpreted in various ways by scholars, the way they are being interpreted by those who hold them dear, and are alternately pained and exhilarated by them, drives our interest in them. This interpretation, as it is developing and unfolding, requires not romanticization and emotionalism, but further research and understanding.
Atencio, T., and S. Hordes 1987: The Sephardic legacy in New Mexico: A Prospectus, Albuquerque, University of New Mexico, Southwest Hispanic Research Institute.
Chßvez, 1954, F., Origins of New Mexico Families in the Spanish Colonial Period, Santa Fe Historical Society of NM, (originally published 1954; rpt.)
___, 1974, My Penitente Land: Reflections on Spanish New Mexico Albuquerque UNM press.
Fierman, F., 1987: Roots and Boots: From Crypto Jew in New Spain Hoboken, Ktav.
Halevy, S.C. 1996: “Manifestations of Crypto-Judaism in the American Southwest” JFER
JFER: Jewish Folklore and Ethnology Review, G. Haskell, ed.
Hernßndez, F. 1993: “Crypto-Jews of the American Southwest,” in Cohen and Peck, Sephardim in the Americas, Tuscaloosa, American Jewish Archives.
Hordes, 1993: “‘The Sephardic Legacy in the Southwest Crypto-Jews of New Mexico’ Historical Research Project Sponsored by the Latin American Institute, University of New Mexico,” JFER 15:2 137-38.
—, 1996 in: , Journal of the West 35 (1996), 82ff.
Jacobs, J.L., 1996, ” Women, Ritual and Secrecy: The creation of Crypto-Jewish Culture” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 35, 97-109.
Larralde, C.M. 1978 “Chicano Jews in South Texas” Ph.D. Dissertation, UCLA
Neulander, J.S. 1994: “Crypto Jews of the Southwest: An Imagined Community” JFER 16:1, 64-68.
____ 1996:, “The Crypto-Jewish Canon: Choosing to be Chosen in the Millenial Tradition” JFER 18:1-2 (1996) 19-58.
Nidel, D. 1984: “Modern descendants of Conversos in New Mexico,” WSJHQ 16:3 (1984) 194-262.
Parks, P., 1988: Survival of Judeo Spanish Cultural and Linguistic traits among descendants of Crypto-Jews in New Mexico, M.A. Thesis, University of New Mexico, 1988.
Patai, R. 1996: “The Jewish Indians of Mexico” [originally published 1950] JFER 18 1-2, 2-12, and “Venta Prieta Revisited [Originally published 1965] JFER 18:1-2, 13-18.
Ross, Dan, 1982: Acts of Faith: A Journey to the fringes of Jewish Identity, New York, St. Martin’s Press.
Sandoval, I.M. 1996: “Abraham’s children of the Southwest” JFER 77-82.
Santos, R. 1983: “Chicanos of Jewish Descent in Texas.” WSJHQ 15: 327-333.
Scholem, G.S. 1971: The Messianic Idea in Judaism and Other Essays on Jewish Spirituality, New York, Schocken
Tobias, H. J., 1990: A History of the Jews in New Mexico, Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press.
Wilson, C. 1997: Myth of Santa Fe: Creation of a Modern Regional Tradition, Albuquerque University of New Mexico Press
Coffeecups 