Luis de Carvajal the Younger

Luis de Carvajal the Younger (, – 8 December 1596) was a Spanish-born Crypto-Jewish writer. He was the nephew of the conquistador Luis de Carvajal y de la Cueva, who was the governor of Nuevo León , and was brought to Mexico at a young age. In Mexico, he began to practice Judaism in secret alongside his family, and additionally kept memoirs of his life. His writings are the earliest known to be written by a Jew in the Americas. He was executed as a martyr of the Jewish faith by the Spanish Inquisition in 1596.

Early life Luis de Carvajal the Younger was born into a family of conversos in Benavente, Spain, around 1566 or 1567. His parents were Francisco Rodriguez de Mattos and Francisca Núñez de Carvajal. He was the fifth of nine children, and had five sisters: Isabel, Leonor, Catalina, Mariana, and Ana, and three brothers: Baltasar, Miguel, and Gaspar. His parents were both born in Mogadouro, Portugal. His uncle on his mother's side, Luis de Carvajal y de la Cueva, was a conquistador named as a governor of Nuevo León. The elder Luis de Carvajal may have heard suspicions of his sister's family practicing Judaism in secret, and brought them to New Spain, possibly hoping to save them from the worst of the Inquisition. His family arrived in New Spain at the port of Tampico in 1580, and stayed in Pánuco. Carvajal accompanied his uncle on his political missions; his brother Gaspar did not live in Pánuco, but rather lived in Mexico City, then the capital of New Spain. Carvajal accompanied his father to Mexico City to sell indigenous slaves; when his father died, Luis returned to Pánuco.

Carvajal studied at a Jesuit school. He was introduced to his family's tradition of secretly practicing Judaism on Yom Kippur around the age of thirteen. According to his memoirs, he received a Bible, after reading it, he circumcised himself with a pair of old scissors. He joined the rest of his family, with the exception of his brother Gaspar, who became a Franciscan friar, in practicing Jewish faith in secret. Carvajal spoke no Hebrew and knew little about Jewish tradition; his isolation from the rest of the Jewish world led him to practice a syncretic form of Judaism and Christianity.

Arrest In 1589, his sister Isabel was denounced as a Judaizer (the term used in the Spanish Inquisition for crypto-Jews practicing Judaism in secret), and was tortured until she gave up the names of her family and several others. Luis de Carvajal was detained for Judaizing alongside his family. His uncle, who had already been arrested on suspicions of being descended from New Christians, died in prison, and his mother and sisters were sent to a convent.

Undeterred by his arrest, he became the leader of a secret Jewish community. When he was arrested again in February of 1595, alongside his mother and several sisters, he refused to incriminate them in Judaizing. However, in February 1596, he was tortured, and revealed the names of 120 other crypto-Jews, including his mother and sisters. In shame, he tried to kill himself, but could not do so.

His sisters, Ana and Mariana, were not executed with their brother, and Mariana was "reconciled" into the Catholic faith. Mariana was accused of relapsing to Judaism and was executed by garrote and then burnt at the stake on 25 March 1601, at twenty-nine years of age, in an auto da fe, whereas Ana was "reconciled" at the same auto da fe. Ana was also accused of practicing Judaism in secret, and was garroted and subsequently burnt at the stake in April 1649, at about seventy years of age, in an auto da fe in Mexico City.

A depiction of the execution of Mariana de Carvajal, Luis de Carvajal's sister. Published in 1870.

Legacy Carvajal's writings are the earliest known writings from a Jew in the New World, as such, they have posed great interest to historians. His memoirs were stored in the national archives of Mexico until 1932, when they disappeared for unexplained reasons. They were recovered in 2016 by Leonard L. Milberg and restored to the archives.

Ilan Stavans dramatises Luis de Carvajal the Younger's life and struggle as part of his work El Illuminado.

The writer Sabina Berman's play En el nombre de Dios (In the Name of God) dramatizes the lives of the Carvajal family.

The movie El Santo Oficio (1974) directed by Mexican director Arturo Ripstein features aspects of his and the Carvajal family's life during the inquistion process.