About the Press

The inquisitorial documents preserved in the Archivo General de la Nación (AGN) not only reveal the historical context, collective ideology, the function of authorities within the social hierarchy, and the dominant values and beliefs of the period, but also illuminate the individual caught within these dynamics of power: their reactions and actions, their concealed words, their uncertainty before censorship, and their search for alternatives for survival.

The inquisitorial proceedings against New Spanish Judaizers contained in this collection involve an effort of documentary recovery whose primary purpose is to allow researchers and interested readers to delve into the existential contradictions of crypto-Jews caught between imposed Christianity and the Law of Moses—in other words, into the disjunction between what was visible and what remained hidden. We know that in every testimony there emerge, on the one hand, traces of the psychological and individual conflicts experienced by the prisoners, and on the other, the political, social, and economic conditions that prevailed at the time. In this sense, echoes of corruption and arbitrariness become evident, as some inquisitors exploited their authority for personal enrichment.

These detailed and annotated records of inquisitorial proceedings provide us today with a window into the lives of crypto-Jews and the difficult circumstances they endured. It is true that the lives of entire families were erased and suppressed, yet their stories have survived thanks to the documents that preserve accounts of their beliefs, values, and suffering.