Jews in New Mexico in the Spanish Era

A relative and a friend offered a subscription to the magazine "La Herencia". The magazine is great reading, but it is not a genuine "historical" document. A good read, but too much mitote in there. There are some great stories in there and I like the publication, it is just that there are many stories in there from New Mexican families claiming to be Jews.

Where is the proof? Who were our ancestors who were "Jews"? Name one, or two or three! There is no documented evidence that any people of the Jewish faith came north with either don Juan de Onate or don Diego de Vargas. There is no evidence of any Jews coming north from Mexico period. Yet there are many that claim to be Jews and from the same time periods discussed here. And I can't be blamed for not looking, I have read several books dedicated to the subject. And at best it states that there could have been some Jews in the colonists of either Onate or Vargas. "Could have been" is a long ways from proof, a very long way.

Some are even attempting to use DNA as proof. My thoughts on that is "how does DNA determine religion. At best it might point to a Semitic race. If it does point in that direction, the odds are that it would be Arab as compared to Jewish. The Arabs, and lots of them,  were in Spain over 700 years. 

Jews were there also, but at some point they were forced to convert or leave. It is these that everyone seems to be "connecting" to. It is stated that even if one could trace a family member to one of these there would be no more "Jewish" customs OR religious customs in the 20th and 21st century.

Now the Spanish had no love for either as documented by their efforts to get rid of the Arabs and convert or expel the Jews. So maybe a few "conversos" did make it through. But 400 and some years later no trace is left of them. The religious folks were diligent in this effort and some were accused and taken to Mexico in chains only to be found innocent.

Now in the early 1800 they did start to arrive, but from the United States. A lot of them, and maybe they intermarried with the locals. That is a distinct possibility and probability. But don't let folks tell you that all Spanish names are in reality Jewish words. That is just not true, no matter who states it. Ask for proof and none is forthcoming.