The Jewish Community in Mexico: Its Life and Education

The Jews have been associated with New Spain, as Mexico was formerly called, since the conquest of the country. It is known that among the conquistadores who accompanied Cortes there was the Marrano Hernando Alonso.1 The Marranos, or their descendants, who fled to New Spain hoping to free themselves from the surveillance of the Inquisition, soon found its very dreadful arm reached out to them in the new habitat. Even before the arrival of the offical Inquisition (1571) for the purpose of freeing the land "which has become contaminated by Jews and heretics ...,"2 a number of persons where persecuted and tried for practicing Judaism.