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The Underground World of Secret Jews and Africans - Two Tales of Sex, Magic, and Survival in Colonial Cartagena and Mexico City (Paperback)
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The Underground World of Secret Jews and Africans - Two Tales of Sex, Magic, and Survival in Colonial Cartagena and Mexico City (Paperback)
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Spanish colonial society was divided into a caste system based on
race and religion. Slaves comprised the lowest caste, leading some
to seek power through African magic. Meanwhile, children of Jewish
fathers and African women tried to gain social status by embracing
Judaism-but in the process they risked retribution from the Spanish
Inquisition, whose tribunals zealously prosecuted the perceived
threat to the colonies from multicultural witchcraft and from
alleged secret Jews. The Spanish authorities and the Inquisition
were aware that the lower castes were in close social and sexual
contact with one another, and that many of their subjects were of
mixed race. This book explores the question of how free and
enslaved Africans and secret Jews interacted in daily life. It
focuses on two stories that exemplify the sexual, religious and
commercial contacts between the castes; their worldwide underground
networks from Europe to Africa, from South American to Asia; and
the intertwined religious and magical practices of secret Jews,
Africans and others. The Inquisition, with its reliance on
denunciation and torture, had only limited control over the daily
lives of different castes, from slaves to merchants and highest
ranks of nobility. The two tales also illustrate the perils tied to
religious identity and practice in the colonies. One, set in
17th-century Cartagena de Indias, features a biracial surgeon famed
for his magic powers. To bargain for his freedom, he denounced his
wealthier colleague for secretly practicing Judaism. The colleague
was arrested and confessed under torture. The second story involves
Esperanza Rodriguez, a biracial Mexican woman tried by the
Inquisition in the 1640s for secretly practicing Judaism. In
Seville, Rodriguez had been a slave of a New Christian (converted
Jewish) woman, who was connected to the highest strata of Spanish
aristocracy and who introduced Rodriguez to Judaism before freeing
her. Rodriguez accepted Judaism in order to close the social gap
that separated her from her former owner. She mixed with other
African people who created their own circle of converted Africans,
and she traveled with her family from Seville to Cuba, Mexico and
Cartagena. But she was eventually caught by the Inquisition and
tortured into confessing her religion. Many of the New Christians
and freed Africans lived adventurous lives, traveled between
continents and were connected to worldwide underground circles,
which had significant influence in the development of the colonial
world. This book tells their story for the first time.
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