Untold Lives in Texas and New Spain: Fresh Directions for Converso and Crypto-Jewish Historiographies

Moderator

Sheldon Lippman

Texas Jewish Historical Society, President

Presenter

Valeria González, B.A.

Department of History, University of Houston

Historiography of Crypto-Jews and Conversos in New Spain/Texas

This is a historiographical paper on the topic of crypto-Jews and conversos in New Spain/Texas who, because of the Alhambra Decree in 1492, were forced to leave their homes in Spain and Portugal for the “New World” or convert to Catholicism. Some of them ended up converting and then fleeing to North America, particularly the area that is now northern Mexico and Texas. This paper uses seven monographs, ranging from 1940 to 2011, to examine how the history-writing of crypto-Jews and conversos has changed over time. Through analyzing the backgrounds of the authors, their methodologies, and their sources, the essay concludes that the historiography of crypto-Jews and conversos in this region progressed from focusing on the Spanish Inquisition to centering the people and their culture, instead of the violence imposed on them.

Presenter

Nancy Katz, Ph.D.

Department of History, University of Houston

Beyond Galveston: Crypto-Jewish Memory and the Hidden History of Jewish Texas

The history of Jewish Texas is often told through immigration, congregational life, and the Galveston Movement. This paper argues that Jewish Texas also includes an older and less institutionally visible history rooted in Crypto-Jewish memory in the U.S.–Mexico borderlands. Drawing on oral histories, archival research, and family narratives, it examines how descendants of conversos preserved and later interpreted memories associated with domestic ritual, foodways, mourning, storytelling, and everyday practice. Rather than treating these traditions as straightforward proof of uninterrupted religious continuity, the paper considers how household practices functioned as forms of family memory whose meanings changed across generations. By placing these experiences alongside more familiar narratives of Jewish settlement, the paper broadens the chronology, geography, and archive of Jewish Texas.