New Mexico’s Hidden Jewish Heritage- El Rancho de las Golondrinas Winter Series

New Mexico's Hidden Jewish Heritage-El Rancho de las Golondrinas Winter Series

The second lecture of the El Rancho de las Golondrinas Winter Series is “New Mexico’s Hidden Jewish Heritage” with Ron Duncan Hart. This lecture will focus on how in Mexico and New Mexico, Jews had to hide their identity during the 300 years of Spanish control from 1521 to 1821 because of the death penalty for any Jew caught in Spanish territories. Of the thousands of Spanish conversos who migrated to Mexico during that period to get away from Spain, some moved to New Mexico, the far northern edge of the Spanish Empire and far from the Inquisition. They still had to hide their Jewish identity, and even after the Spanish lost control and the Inquisition disappeared, the culture of hiding persisted for more than 100 years. In 1965 the Second Vatican Council issued the document Nostra Aetate repudiating antisemitism and opening relations with Jews. After that, descendants of converso families in New Mexico began to be more open about their heritage. Over the last 50 years the hidden Jewish heritage of New Mexico has been increasingly open and documented.

The lecture is on February 28 from 6:00pm - 7:00pm at St. Francis Auditorium at the New Mexico Museum of Art. Advance tickets are required and are $10 at HoldMyTicket (https://holdmyticket.com/tickets/409199).  Free admission for Las Golondrinas and Museum of New Mexico Foundation members with ID. Hope to see you there and start your adventure at Golondrinas.org.

*Pleas note: Tickets for our third lecture “Manhattan Project Spies at Los Alamos” are on sale (https://holdmyticket.com/tickets/409206).

Date: Tuesday, February 28, 2023

Time: 6:00pm-7:00pm

Location: St. Francis Auditorium

Tickets: $10.00 per Person and may be purchased at HoldMyTicket (https://holdmyticket.com/tickets/409199).