Twenty years of research in the original Inquisition documents in the Vatican archives and the national archives of Spain, Portugal, and Latin America nations resulted in this first full-length book on the Marranos, or secret Jews, of Latin America and the Caribbean Islands up to 1825.
This fascinating account explores the social history and religious aspects of the lives of the Jews who lived in Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Brazil and Argentina in the threatening shadow of the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions. Flamboyant leaders, daring exploits, communal relationships, superstitions, sex customs and food habits pursuant to rabbinical injunctions, and religious observances and prayers are revealed in narrative form.
The relationships with the Jews of Italy, Turkey and other places are included in this remarkable revelation of an until now, unknown segment of Jewish history.
