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others. Among these early explorer-Conquistadors of the 16th Century were two who made very
significant advances into Northern Mexico and the Southwest of the United States. They were Juan
de Onate and Don Luis de Carvajal y de la Cueva.

On May 31, 1579, the Spanish Crown issued a colonization charter to Don Luis de Carva-
jal y de la Cueva. He was appointed the First Governor-Captain General over an enormous piece
of land known as El Nuevo Reyno de Leon (New Kingdom of Leon). Because of the unusual set of
circumstances that arose in the process of these pioneering efforts, Don Luis's Reyno eventually
encompassed a large section of the Vice Regency of New Spain and the existing kingdoms of
Nueva Galicia and Nueva Vizcaya. For all intents and purposes this section of land covered most
of Northern Mexico and much of what is today New Mexico and south-central Texas, including the
Alamo City of San Antonio.

The irony lies in the identity of the passengers on Don Luis' ship, La Santa Catalina that
landed at Tampico, Mexico in 1580. The fact is that all the passengers, who had been recruited
from across Spain and the Iberian Peninsula, were members of his and his wife's family, and they
were all Sephardic Jews. In fact, Don Luis' successor was his own nephew, Luis de Carvajal el
Mozo ("the younger"). He too was a Sephardic Jew who, rather than deny his faith, was burned at
the stake, together with his mother and three sisters, in Mexico City in 1589. Don Luis died in
prison for the same reason around February 13, 1591.

Sephardic "Ghettoes" -- Barrios

This story of the Carvajal extended family has, in different ways, been repeated over and
over again throughout the last four centuries in the lives of Sephardic Manitos of New Mexico and
Tejanos of Texas. Wherever they have lived, they have somehow been displaced and restricted
into oppressed corners of their world. It started in the oppressed barrio communities in Spain,
was expanded in the barrios of Mexico, and became entrenched in the barrios of the Southwest.
However, after centuries of oblivion, these hidden children of Spain and Mexico's Inquisitions are
being resurrected. God is blowing the breath of His spirit into these "dry bones" in the desert and
showing them who they really are. Consequently, Malachi's prophecy is now coming to pass. The
hearts of the children are finally finding their forefathers. Better yet, they have begun to make ali-
yah, that is, to ascend and return firstly to the LORD their God. For the most part they are tired
and hungry and ready for a radical change. Similar to the recent wave of 420 Cuban Jews making
aliyah, many of these lost or hidden Jews are ready to make a physical aliyah and return to the
land of their forefathers -- the land of their inheritance.

-- Bikurei Tziyon, January/February 2000

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