The Faith of Remembrance: Marrano Labyrinths

In a series of intimate and searing portraits, Nathan Wachtel traces the journeys of the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Marranos--Spanish and Portuguese Jews who were forcibly converted to Catholicism but secretly retained their own faith. Fleeing persecution in their Iberian homeland, some sought refuge in the Americas, where they established transcontinental networks linking the New World to the Old. The Marranos--at once Jewish and Christian, outsiders and insiders--nurtured their hidden beliefs within their new communities, participating in the economic development of the early Americas while still adhering to some of the rituals and customs of their ancestors. In a testament to the partial assimilation of these new arrivals, their faith became ever more syncretic, mixing elements of Judaism with Christian practice and theology.

In many cases, the combination was fatal. Wachtel relies on inquisitorial archives of trials and executions to chronicle legal and religious prosecutions for heresy. From the humble Jean Vicente to the fabulously wealthy slave trafficker Manuel Bautista Perez, from the untutored Theresa Paes de Jesus to the learned Francisco Maldonado de Silva, each unforgettable figure offers a chilling reminder of the reach of the Inquisition.

Sensitive to the lingering tensions within the Marrano communities, Wachtel joins the concerns of an anthropologist to his skills as a historian, and in a stunning authorial move, he demonstrates that the faith of remembrance remains alive today in the towns of rural Brazil.

Author: Nathan Wachtel
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Published: 02/21/2013
Pages: 408
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.60lbs
Size: 9.25h x 6.25w x 1.30d
ISBN: 9780812244557

About the Author
Nathan Wachtel is Professor Emeritus at the College de France and author of numerous books, including Gods and Vampires: Return to Chipaya and The Vision of the Vanquished: The Spanish Conquest of Peru Through Indian Eyes, 1530-1570. Nikki Halpern is an independent scholar and translator based in France. Yosef Kaplan is Bernard Cherrick Professor of the History of the Jewish People at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.