Alicia Gojman Goldberg

Converts in New Spain Alicia Gojman Goldberg

This book, originally published in the 1980s is one of the pioneering studies of the Jewish population in Mexico. The author, Alicia Gojman not only has a long and outstanding career as a historian; she has also played a significant role in the culture of contemporary Mexican Jews. She has been the promoter of a cultural project that has managed to combine important documentary collections maintained in a vital center dedicated to the study and dissemination of the Judeo-Mexican culture. She has promoted far-reaching editorial projects, in which the memories, images, documents and contributions of generations of Jews in Mexico have been combined. Converts in New Spain, is a study about the Converts and Crypto-Jews who travelled along with conquerors and colonizers to the New World. 1492, the year of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, is the end of the history of Spanish Judaism and the beginning of the history of the convert in the Americas. The history of the converts in the New World starts with its discovery, since they themselves participated in the exploration and colonization in a much grater degree than in commonly acknowledged. As part of the Spanish society, they came to the Americas feeling like other Christian Spaniards, "chosen" by God to find in this New World, a New Jerusalem. Their integration to the colonial society was not easy, when they were asked for their "blood cleanness," or when they were harassed by the Inquisition Tribunal. However, these converts, participated in the economic, political, social and cultural development of New Spain. Originally published in Spanish by the National Autonomous University of Mexico, UNAM, this is the first English edition. About the author: Alicia Gojman Goldberg was born in Mexico city. She has a PhD degree in History from UNAM, where she is a professor and researcher at the FES Acatlán. She has published over 20 books and 194 articles about Mexican and Jewish history. She is the Honorary Director of the Jewish Research and Documentation Center in Mexico; a member of the Mexican National Research System since 1984. She has received UNAM's Sor Juana in 2005, an Honorary Fellowship from Tel Aviv's university in 2006; the Cultural award from the Mexico-Israel Cultural Institute in 2007. The Anastasio Sarabia Award for Archival work in 2009. During her management as president of the Ashkenazi Community Documentation and Research Center she obtained the award as the best private archive awarded by the National Archive of Mexico and UNESCO's Memory of the World award in 2009.