Crypto Jew Or Crypto Moslem? What Are The Odds?

Las Vegas, New Mexico - Click the image to make it larger

I wonder what the odds are of being Crypto Jew or Crypto Moslem amongst "Spanish" New Mexicans, Hispano New Mexicans? I wonder why we do not hear about Crypto Moslems? I wonder why no grave markers with the crescent moon? I wonder why no "hidden" memories of Allah? There are many things to wonder about.

In Spain of old about one half of the population were "New Christians", convert Moslems and/or convert Jews. We have to keep in mind that both of these groups are Semites, they belong to the same racial group. Check out the Wikipedia articles listed below and come up with your own idea as to the who and as to the why.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morisco

Or

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypto-Judaism

Hispanic New Mexicans have always had an unusual morbid desire to be labeled as "white". White as compared to mestizo, white as compared to Indian, white as compared to anything. This is, in my opinion, a result of the racism Americans bought with them from the east coast when they over ran and annexed the province in 1846. In all reality the process probably started with the opening of the Santa Fe Trail bringing the first Americans. Josiah Gregg in his book (Commerce on the Prairies) on the Santa Fe Trail and the commerce associated with it has many racist images/passages associate with New Mexicans.

The Americans that came detested everything Mexican, the people, the food, their culture, their religion, everything Mexican was detested. To some extent the things that Americans disliked or hated were labeled as Mexican and things that were not bad were labeled as Spanish.

A couple of funny and accurate articles on these matters can be found in the January 1959 and then again in the July 1959 editions of the New Mexico Historical Review. The January article is titled "New Mexican Women in Early American Writings" written by James H. Lacy. The second article (July) is titled "New Mexicans Viewed by Americans 1846 - 1849" and written by John P. Bloom.

Here it states that New Mexican women who were darker complexioned we labeled as "Mexican sluts, whores or prostitutes". The lighter women were "Spanish Ladies'. Most men were labeled, at best as, Mexican and only the very wealthy men were labeled as Spanish.

There Are no "Hidden Jews" in New Mexico UPDATED

Check out this article located here if you want to see the argument that there are "Crypto Jews" in New Mexico. Sort of funny how anyone would go about making a determination that they were Jewish folks in New Mexico prior to 1820 or so. There are Jews in New Mexico, New Mexican Jews, but their history DOES NOT predate 1820. No information of any kind is available that substantiates this allegation. In short there is no proof.

A star of David on headstone is not proof! A menorah you remember on grandma's mantle is not proof! Your grandmother with prayers "en la dispensa" is not proof! suffice it to say there is no proof.

A lot of if's, maybe's and what if's etc..... But not a single shred of hard evidence. Read the evidence presented and look carefully. I imagine if you want to believe, nothing anyone can do about that. But credibility is lost when folks make this assumption and try and apply it to New Mexican genealogy.

The article referenced is a good article on the why and how come of the subject.

DNA cannot prove you are a Jew anymore than it can prove you are a Mormon or a Jehovahs Witness. These are religions and DNA cannot identify what religion a person belongs to. Jews are a religious group, not a racial group.

Keep in mind that most Jews, here and in Israel, are Semites, the same racial group as Arabs. And remember that Arabs were in, ruled Spain for over 600 years. The odds are if there is Semite blood in our veins it is most probably Arab.

Converso/Crypto Sephardic Jews in New Mexico prior to 1810 cannot be proven, at least not yet. But folks, mainly Hispanic women, seem to want to be Jewish. Don't ask me why, I have no idea why. Some have gone to the extent of joining the Jewish faith.

UPDATE BELOW

Here is another pearl of wisdom: "When Lineage is traced back to 1492, each person has (depending on whether a generation is counted as thirty years or twenty five) as many as 131,072 to 1,048,576 direct ancestors. Given these numbers, every southwestern Latino, Hispano, Mexican, Mestizo, Chicano or whatever we call ourselvs is practically guaranteed Iberian Jewish ancestry -- whether we like it or not."

But even that does not make one a Jew.