Vera's Journey: Across Generations and Beyond Borders

VERA’S JOURNEY:

Across Generations and Beyond Borders

By

Albert Ramirez

Published by Albert Ramirez at Smashwords

Copyright 2013 Albert Ramirez

Fall 2013

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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With sincere humility

tremendous gratitude

and absolute love

I dedicate this book to

Vera

my life partner.

Introduction

The present work is a briefer, revised version of an unpublished manuscript entitled Vera’s Gift. As with the former work, I am indebted to many of Vera’s family for relating to me their stories about the woman who was their mother, grandmother, sister, relative, or friend. Sally, Carol, and Sylvia – Vera’s sisters – were particularly helpful in this regard. Many thanks to Vera’s sisters Arabella and Toni, and to her relatives, Pauline Koyama and Iola Garcia who provided me with copies of the La Deane Miller, Spanish Ancestry, and Nuestras Raices material that served as invaluable references, and with some of the family photographs. The chapters dealing with the genealogical history of the family could not have been written had it not been for the excellent work of Stanley Hordes and Fray Angélico Chávez. The work of both Hordes and Chávez served as the foundational link in tracing the family history. I relied significantly on their exhaustive and extremely well-documented books, as the reader will note when viewing these chapters.

Vera’s children and grandchildren, each in their own way, helped me and supported me in writing the story about their mother and grandmother. I am in their debt.

Using all of these resources, I was able to put into historical context the names, dates, and places of origin of Vera’s ancestors. In telling the family story, in no way have I changed history. The historical events and the important historical figures whom I discuss are as they occurred. The personal experiences of Vera’s ancestors within this historical context, however, are a product of my own subjective imagination. I obviously have no way of knowing the thoughts, attitudes, and personal conversations of Vera’s ancestors.

Vera had always acknowledged and been proud of her Mexican and indigenous roots. She spent most of her adult life affirming her Mestizo ancestry, and encouraging others in her family to be proud of their indigenous heritage as well. There was another side of her ancestry, however, which she also wanted to explore, one which was seldom discussed by her family. Vera believed her family was also of Jewish ancestry. She could not be one-hundred percent certain of this, although it seemed that she first heard about the possibility --- directly or indirectly – from her elders, when she was just a young girl growing up in the San Luis Valley of southern Colorado. Later, when she became a student of history at the University of Colorado at Denver, she investigated this possibility more closely. In time, she became more convinced that her ancestors, Sephardic Jews, left the Iberian Peninsula – Spain and Portugal – during the period of the Spanish Inquisition in the 1500’s, and crossed the Atlantic Ocean into Mexico. In time, her ancestors moved to the northern part of New Spain, and settled in the Santa Fe, New Mexico area, where they lived until the 1800’s, before moving to the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado.

In writing Vera’s story, I uncovered extensive evidence that lends strong support to the possibility of Jewish ancestry in her family. I do not pretend to have made an exhaustive and comprehensive investigation into her family’s genealogy. In fact, in this book I barely scratch the surface with respect to Vera’s family history. Of the many, many branches of Vera’s family tree, I have explored only two.

As I began to explore more deeply into her family history, I was able to trace the family origins to Spain and Portugal. I also began to research the history of the Sephardic Jews and their migration to the New World, particularly to Mexico and to New Mexico. One of the most informative sources of information in this regard was the work of Stanley Hordes. In his extremely well-documented book, To the End of the Earth, Stanley Hordes discusses the history of Spanish Sephardic Jews, and makes the following points:

The beginning of Jewish settlements in the Iberian peninsula most probably occurred during the time of the Roman Empire, in the second century before Christ, when they were exiled from their ancestral homeland. During the centuries that Spain was part of the Roman Empire, Spanish Jews enjoyed centuries of relative peace and toleration. After the conversion of the empire to Christianity, however, the situation of the Jews began to erode.

From the mid-fifth century until early eighth century, the Iberian Peninsula was under the control of a Germanic band, the Visigoths. Although practicing Christians, the Visigoths maintained significant doctrinal differences from the 8 million Spanish Catholics who fell under their domination. The Visigoths tried to convert Spanish Jews to their brand of Christianity, and Jews were often put in the middle of the conflicts between the Visigoths and Spanish Catholics. During this time, Spanish Jews continued to be persecuted, particularly if they did not convert to Christianity. The Visigoths enforced strong barriers to the social and economic mobility of the Spanish Jews.

The so-called Golden Age for Spanish Jews began with the invasion of the Iberian Peninsula by Muslims in the year 711. In general, the situation became more tolerant, since the Muslims allowed more religious freedom, and removed the barriers to Jewish mobility.

Beginning in the eighth century, the Spanish Christian leaders began their attempts to re-conquer the Iberian Peninsula from the Muslims; it was the beginning of the reconquista, an effort which was to take 800 years. This effort became more than just a campaign to defeat the Muslim armies, more than an attempt to expand the realm of the monarchs of Spain. Rather, it became a veritable crusade against what the Christians regarded as the ‘infidel,’ a term that was directed largely against the Muslims, but included the Jews as well. During the first half of this 800 year period, the Church used peaceful efforts to try to win Jewish converts. In the second half, their efforts to convert became increasingly violent. The church’s efforts led to many converts – "conversos." Some of these conversos were in name only – they secretly continued to practice Judaism (referred to as crypto-Jews) - while others were actual converts to Christianity. In time, conflict occurred between the Old Christians and the New Christians who now had greater opportunities available to them. This conflict was one of the reasons leading to, in 1481, the establishment of the Holy Office of the Inquisition, by Fernando and Isabel, the Catholic Monarchs.

The 800 year, reconquista came to an end on January 2, 1492, when the Christian armies defeated the Muslim armies. Under pressure from the Church, two months later, Fernando and Isabel issued an edict that decreed that within three months (later extended to four), all the Jews living in their kingdoms must convert to Christianity or go into exile.

• It is estimated that from 60,000 to 100,000 of the Spanish Jews went into Portugal, particularly as a result of the actions of the Holy Office of the Inquisition, which by the end of the 15th century, "had penanced tens of thousands of conversos, many of whom were burned at the stake."

Initially, the Portuguese Jews were forced "to gather in public places where they were baptized in masse. The first two decades were very difficult for these Portuguese conversos. After a few decades in Portugal, however, the attitude became more tolerant, and Portuguese New Christians tended to continue their observance of Jewish laws and rituals discreetly, yet in an atmosphere of relative safety." Eventually, during the last part of the sixteenth century, the Portuguese Inquisition became similar in its intensity and violence to the earlier Spanish Inquisition, resulting in a mass exodus of crypto-Jews to Mexico and other places in New Spain.

The first two chapters of this book focus on the family history, beginning with Vera’s descendants leaving Portugal and arriving in Mexico, and continuing their journey into New Mexico and el Valle de San Luis, and eventually to Denver. The remaining chapters focus on Vera’s life in Boulder, her work at the University of Colorado, and her commitment to students and to the broader community.

Vera’s journey does not begin with her birth, just as it does not end with her death. Her journey is her family’s journey, which is as old as the beginning of life on earth, and as young as Vera’s yet unborn descendants. In this book, however, we focus on her family’s journey from the Iberian Peninsula to the Western Hemisphere, which provides us with an understanding and appreciation of the number of generations that Vera’s old world side of the family has been in the Americas.

It was a time not too much after Europeans had discovered the New World, and before they acknowledged that this new world was comprised of civilizations as old and as advanced as theirs.

It was the time of the Inquisition.

1. In Search of a Homeland

The First and Second Generations:

Diego González proudly looked at his newborn son, Diego Blandín. What a handsome son, he thought to himself. Yet, he could not ignore the concern that he felt for his baby son. In this year of 1552, in Coimbra, Portugal, it was a difficult time to raise a family, particularly if you were a Sephardic Jew.

Diego González thought to himself, Has there ever been a time when it has not been difficult for my people?

For many generations, the ancestors of Diego González had lived in Spain, as early as the time of the Roman Empire, and before the birth of Christ. During the almost three hundred years that the Visigoths controlled the Iberian Peninsula, those Spanish Jews who did not convert to Christianity were persecuted. The situation became easier for them when the Muslims invaded and eventually took control of Spain. The Muslims were more tolerant of the Spanish Jews than the Spanish Christians had been. Spain was under Muslim rule for 800 years.

When the Christians re-conquered Spain in the eighth century, it led to the Spanish Inquisition, and the return to the persecution of the Spanish Jews. In order to escape the Inquisition, thousands of Spanish Jews fled to Portugal, including the ancestors of Diego González.

But how long would it be before the Inquisition followed them to Portugal? Diego González wondered what kind of a world his newborn son would have to live in, what kind of prejudice Diego Blandín would have to face. Would his family ever find a place he could call home?

Diego Blandín would be the first in his family to leave the Iberian Peninsula and to travel to the New World. At an early age, Diego Blandín left Portugal aboard a ship to New Spain, and lived in Mexico City and in central Mexico for a while. He returned occasionally to Portugal, married, and had two sons, Domingo González Labón born in 1585 in Coimbra, Portugal, and Sebastián González, born in 1592, also in Coimbra, Portugal. Diego knew that his sons’ generation would be the last to be born in the Iberian Peninsula. The situation in Portugal had become too dangerous, even for people like himself who had converted to Christianity, and who were known as conversos.

Diego Blandín was part of a significant number of crypto-Jews living in Portugal - Christian Jews who secretly