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New Mexico

New Mexico’s Conversos and Crypto-Jews

Program No. 11007RJ

Learn the history and experience the unique culture of conversos and Crypto-Jews — Spain’s Jewish citizens who were forced to leave their country for not converting to Christianity.

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6 days

5 nights

13 meals

5B 4L 4D

Check-in, Registration, Orientation, Welcome Dinner

Albuquerque, NM

Converso and Crypto-Jewish History, Old Town Albuquerque

Albuquerque, NM

Crypto-Jews in NM, Indian Pueblo Cultural Center

Albuquerque, NM

History lecture, Hispanic Cultural Center, Holocaust Museum

Albuquerque, NM

All-Day Field Trip to Santa Fe

Albuquerque, NM

Program Concludes

Albuquerque, NM

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At a Glance

In 1492, the Alhambra Decree forced Spain’s Jewish citizens to make an unthinkable decision: convert to Christianity or leave the country. Over the next 500 years, the saga of the conversos and Crypto-Jews — who practiced their faith in secrecy — brought them to the New World and finally to New Mexico, where their traditions melded with those of the peoples of the Southwest. In this land of canyons and desert, trace the struggle of New Mexico’s conversos and Crypto-Jews, and consider how their traditions have managed to survive against the odds.

Activity Level

On Your Feet

Walking up to 3 miles over uneven terrain; standing up to one hour, some stairs. Elevation up to 7000 feet. Due to the elevations during this program, physical activity may be more fatiguing than at sea level.

Small Group

Love to learn and explore in a small-group setting? These adventures offer small, personal experiences with groups of 13 to 24 participants.

Best of all, you’ll…

Meet New Mexico conversos for personal insight.
Visit Santa Fe and Museum Hill.
Enjoy field trips to the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center and the National Hispanic Cultural Center.

General Notes

All dates are designated for small groups and are limited to 24 participants or less. For a more active version of this program, please see "New Mexico’s Conversos and Crypto-Jews in Santa Fe" (#22854). It includes similar and complementary educational content, but is based in Santa Fe.

Featured Expert

All trip experts

Christopher Gibson

Christopher Gibson is an award-winning artist, writer, and arts educator who makes his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His work includes the Cuentos del Camino series on lower Cerrillos Road in Santa Fe and mixed-media installations at numerous museums in New Mexico and California. Over the years, he has written several articles on Hispanic arts and culture for the magazines "Tradición Revista" and "Imagen."

Please note: This expert may not be available for every date of this program.

Christopher Gibson View biography

Maria Apodaca View biography

Maria Apodaca’s family arrived in what is today's New Mexico in 1598. She is a descendant of the B'nai Anusim, Spanish and Portuguese Jews who were forced to convert to Catholicism in the 15th century. Maria is a founder and board member of the Sephardic Heritage Institute New Mexico; a board member, former Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies; and a board member, Jewish Genealogical Society of New Mexico.

Schelly Talalay Dardashti View biography

Schelly Talalay Dardashti, a journalist and genealogist originally from New York, has lived in Tehran, Tel Aviv, and New Mexico. She is the U.S. genealogy advisor for MyHeritage, and has traced her Ashkenazi, Sephardi, and Mizrahi families across Iran, Spain, Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine for decades. She created the award-winning "Tracing the Tribe - Jewish Genealogy on Facebook" group. She is a former board member of the Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies; founding member, Sephardic Heritage Institute New Mexico; and president, Jewish Genealogical Society of New Mexico.

Deborah Brin View biography

Rabbi Deborah Brin is an author, Jewish ambassador, and community builder. She is ordained by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, and received her master’s in pastoral counseling from LaSalle University. With a long career in rabbinic, pastoral, and chaplaincy positions, Rabbi Brin led a thriving congregation in Albuquerque for over a decade. She now enjoys interfaith work, teaching about Judaism, and helping Jews find their own gateways back to their heritage while welcoming their non-Jewish partners, friends, and extended family.

Beth Cohen View biography

Beth Cohen, a well-known vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and music educator in New Mexico, earned her bachelor’s in music from the University of New Mexico. Since 1995, she has been serving as the musical director and cantor at Congregation Nahalat Shalom. Beth has enjoyed exploring, studying, teaching, singing, and performing a variety of Jewish liturgical music and folk music. Some of her favorite music comes from the Sephardi folk traditions in the Ladino language, as well as in Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, and Turkish.

Christine Phillips View biography

Christine (Chris) Hazard Phillips was born and raised in London, England, moving to the U.S. after college. She is now a happy transplant to Albuquerque, New Mexico after a career as a clinical psychologist in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Christine likes to stay busy helping with her two granddaughters, volunteering at the Santa Fe Opera, Chatter ABQ, and with the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History. Training for the latter has greatly expanded her knowledge of, and love for, her adopted state.

Katherine Burleigh View biography

Kate Burleigh and her family moved to Socorro, New Mexico in 2001 and immediately became enthralled with the Land of Enchantment. She earned her master’s degree in art integrated curriculum from Lesley College in Cambridge, MA. Kate loves mountain biking and trail running with her family and volunteers with local trail building crews. Traveling has given Kate compassion for people living far from home, which has led her to support foreign students at New Mexico Technical Institute and sponsor refugee families with Socorro Sponsor Circle.

Suggested Reading List (6 books)

Visit the Road Scholar Bookshop

You can find many of the books we recommend at the Road Scholar store on bookshop.org, a website that supports local bookstores.

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New Mexico’s Conversos and Crypto-Jews

Program Number: 11007

The Jews of Spain

by Jane S. Gerber

A straightforward, readable history of Jewish life in Spain. The book covers life in Spain up to the expulsion of the Jews in 1492, and continues with chapters on the Sephardic diaspora.

Secrecy and Deceit: The Religion of the Secret Jews

by Gitlitz, David M.

New Mexico's Crypto-Jews: Image and Memory

by Soltes, Ori Z. (Introduction), Cary Herz (Photographer)

A photographic tribute to the New Mexican descendants of the Crypto-Jews, a subsect of Europeans who were forced to convert to Catholicism during the Spanish Inquisition. Though publically they were Catholic, the Crypto-Jews continued to privately practice their Jewish faiths. Black-and-white photos are supplemented with essays.

To the End of the Earth

by Hordes, Stanley M.

After encountering New Mexicans who abstained from eating pork and lit candles on Friday night, Hordes realized these practices were passed down from the early crypto-Jewish settlers. He follows the legacy of the crypto-Jews from their origins in medieval Spain and Portugal through their settlement in New Spain and current reemergence of their culture and practices within the Hispano community.

Crypto-Jews: The Long Journey

by Ron Duncan Hart

The crypto-Jewish experience has been shrouded in mystery for a past that might have been and the imagined future that could be. In the American Southwest and in parts of Latin America there is a movement to reclaim Jewish identity, and people are describing remnants of Jewish life in their families even though their ancestors renounced Jewishness long ago. People want to learn about the Sepharad of their ancestors, the Spain of the Jews. Many ask, "What is our place in that heritage." Others simply say, "Somos Judios." We are Jews.

The Sephardic Jews of Spain and Portugal: Survival of an Imperiled Culture in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Century

by Dolores Sloan

This work traces the history of the Sephardic Jews from their golden age to their post-Columbian diaspora. Several significant Sephardic Jews are profiled in detail, and later chapters explore the increasing restrictions on Jews prior to expulsion, the divergent fates of two diaspora communities (in Brazil and the Ottoman Empire), and the enduring legacy of Sephardic history.

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At a Glance

Best of all, you’ll…

General Notes

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