Del Rio News Herald

Part II of II

“¿Hay Diana, como puedes decir que quizás yo tenga sangre Judia?

(Oh, Diana, how can you say that maybe I have Jewish blood?

I know because I have found hundreds of supporting evidence in all types of resource documents from Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Church archives, documentaries and most importantly the records that have been released about the people who were killed during the AUTOS DE FE in Mexico City.

The Government both secular and religious has released the oral confessions that depict word for word of the Sephardic/Crypto Jews practices, rituals, and the whereabouts of their relatives. The entire confessions of the people arrested and tried can be found on the inter-net as well.

I have read hundreds and hundreds of documents. Today I will share some of the interesting facts that I have learned about some of our ancestors.

The first Mexican AUTO DE FE was held in 1526 and the last in 1815.

The Inquisition was abolished with Mexico’s Independence in 1821, at which time the last person imprisoned for Judaizing was released. We thus have documentary evidence for the secret preservation of Judaism in Mexico until the end of the 18th century.

We have explored the customs, rituals, practices, and most all the various aspects of our culture here in Del Rio and along the Borderlands of Texas. These are the indicators more than the color of our skin, the stature of the people or even the language that is spoken.

For several years now I have interviewed many people that live along the Borderlands of Texas and Mexico. There are many people who told me that they suspected that they had Jewish extraction.

I have come to categorize these people in several sections:

1) Those people who were told nothing explicit but were told to practice something because ‘that is the way we do things in our family;’ also this group of people realized that they were different because they did things differently.

2) Those people who were told that they were special in some ways (“We are not Mexican; we are not Spanish; we are not Indians.) This group was told that they had to practice the ways of the ancient family. This consisted of a “clean diet;” burial practices; birthing practices; marriage customs; following the ways of Grandmother with no questions asked.

3) This group is the one that has persisted in a more visible and traditional way of living because they were told that they were Jews. This group followed the customs with complete knowledge of their heritage. Many of these people are in Monterrey and other parts of Texas and Mexico. I suspect that today the remnants of the Sephadic Jews are all over the world.

Please recall that I have stated that there are two general types of Jews in the world. The oldest is the Ashkenazi Jew. This Jew is of a German and Russian extraction. The Sephardic Jew is from Spain. They are of Spanish and Portuguese extraction. Sephardic is a Hebrew word that means Spanish.

The Sephardic Jew was generally dark skinned and not very tall with dark hair. There were light haired and blue eyes Jews, as well, especially because many married the Spaniard. Most Spaniards are fair skinned with colored eyes. The Moors were also involved in the direction that the culture took prior to their expulsion from Spain.

From the time that Cristobal Colon brought the Sephardic Jew to the New World we have been a ‘capirotada’ of people. Within one family we find blondes with brown, black, gray or blue eyes; we find dark hair with blue eyes; we find red hair and brown or blue eyes; we find prietitos and morenitos with every color of eyes; and we find tall, short, skinny, and gorditos, too.

We also will find high cheek bones, slanted eyes, round eyes, oval eyes, big noses, small noses y no se diga, las orejas chiquitas y unos bien orejones! (…small ears and big ones, too.)

Americans of Hispanic heritage are a mosaic of human characteristics. They come in all colors, shapes and sizes and they speak a melody of languages. The media, history books, films, story books etc. have for centuries depicted the Hispanic people as being dark skin, short, fat, dumpy, greñudo, barefooted, sporting a big sombrero and sleeping next to a huge cactus!

My daddy was short, skinny, big nose, small slanted eyes, curly black hair, big ears and morenito. My mom was just exactly the opposite.

Well, I turned out mid-way.

I have three daughters, one of every color of eyes, hair and skin. My baby is Tammy. She was born with white blond hair, a few sprinkles of blond eyelashes and her skin was so light that it was see-thru. We could see her veins.

On many, many occasions I was in public where people did not know us and I would get asked if she was mine. I would say “yes” and I would get, “Oh, my, she does not look Mexican at all!” I would always smile big, show my ‘little red riding hood storybook teeth,’ blink a few times and suck in fresh air and then and only then, I would gently say, “Please tell me what a Mexican looks like. You see, I have never been able to figure it out for myself.”

It is not their fault. Centuries of depicting the Hispanic American with a poor identity plus our cultures’ unwillingness to correct this, has created a negative picture of this Borderland group.

Angelitos morenitos is an understatement and definitely does not tell the story of the Jewish practices and customs. What does are the practices suggestive of the Sephardic /Crypto Jews.

Dr. Hordes identified several practices: Friday night candle lighting, refraining from eating pork, observing a Saturday Sabbath, covering mirrors during mourning, circumcision, playing with a trompito, 40 day dieta after birthing, red thread to the forehead after spitting on it, burying the belly button and nail clippings, the white flour tortilla, sweeping the floor and many of the foods we eat as a commonality.

What matters today is what you think of yourself. You are what you think. You are what you believe. Believe in yourself. Your Maker loved you so much that He gave His life for blanquitos, morenitos, prietitos, y negritos! God is great! Thank you for enjoying this article.

For comments please

e-mail me at:

dszertuche(at)hotmail.com

Share | Save | Mail | Print

Serving Del Rio and Val Verde County since 1929

A Southern Newspapers publication.