History of the Jews in America: From the Period of the Discovery of the New World to the Present TimeWiernik, Peter
History
History of the Jews in America: From the Period of the Discovery of the New World to the Present Time
Wiernik, Peter
Jews -- America -- History; Jews -- United States -- History
Several members of the Carabajal (Carvalho?) family suffered martyrdom
in Mexico at the end of the sixteenth century and at the beginning of
the seventeenth. Francisca Nunez de Carabajal, born in Portugal about
1540, was among the members of the family seized by the Inquisition
in 1590. She was tortured until she implicated her husband and her
children, and the entire family was forced to confess and abjure
Judaism at a public Auto da Fé which was celebrated on Saturday,
February 24, 1590. Later, after more than five years’ imprisonment,
they were convicted of relapsing into Judaism, and Francisca, her
son Luis and her four daughters were burned at the stake in Mexico
City, December 8, 1596. She was the sister of Don Luis de Carabajal
y Cueva (born in Portugal, 1539), who was appointed Governor of New
Leon, Mexico, in 1579 and is said to have died in 1595. He arrived
in Mexico in 1580, where, in consideration of his appointment as
governor of a somewhat ill-defined district, he undertook to colonize
a certain territory at his own expense, being allowed the privilege
of reimbursing himself out of the revenue. There were many Spanish
Jews among his colonists, and within a decade after their settlement
more than a score were denounced and more or less severely punished
for Judaizing. He is the subject of a work, half romantic and half
historical, by Mr. C. K. Landis, entitled _Carabalja the Jew, a Legend
of Monterey_ (Vineland, 1894).
Another heroic martyr of Mexico was Don Tomas de Sobremonte, a Judaizer,
who died at the stake April 11, 1649, without uttering a groan, mocking
“the Pope and his hirelings” and taunting his tormentors with his last
breath.
The Inquisition in Lima, Peru, is known to have solemnized thirty-four
Autos da Fé at that place between 1573 (November 15) and 1806 (July 17)
and at ten or eleven of them there were Jewish victims, their numbers
ranging from one or two to as high as fifty-six (January 23, 1639).
From the earliest day of its establishment it looked with suspicion
upon the Portuguese who settled there. In this case as in many others,
Portuguese was only another name for Marranos, and they were treated
with great severity. There is a record of one David Ebron, who in
1597 sent a memorial to Philip II. relating to his discoveries and
services in South America, but it is not known how far his claims were
recognized. About 1604 or 1605 a number of those who were accused in
Peru of Judaizing sent memorials to the King of Spain in which they
pleaded that life under such conditions had become unbearable. Relief
was obtained in the form of an Apostolic Brief from Pope Clement VIII.,
commanding the Inquisitors to release, without delay, all Judaizing
Portuguese in Peru. When this order arrived in Lima, only two prisoners
were still detained in the dungeons of the Tribunal, ♦Gonzalo de
Luna and Juan Vicente. The others had either become reconciled or had
suffered death at the stake.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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