CARVAJAL

CARVAJAL, a distinguished New Christian family in 16th-century Mexico. LUIS DE CARVAJAL Y DE LA CUEVA (1539–1591?) was comptroller for the Cape Verde Islands and an admiral of the Spanish fleet off Flanders before going to New Spain in 1568. On his way there, he defeated a group of corsairs off Jamaica and fought against the English buccaneer John Hawkins; later, he captured many of the latter's followers who had been left behind. Carvajal went back to Spain in 1578, and in 1579 was named governor of the New Kingdoms of Leon, a territory comprising at least one-fifth of the area of modern Mexico. Returning to New Spain in 1580, he began to explore and exploit his territory, discovering silver and establishing towns like León, New Almaden, and San Luis, the precursor of modern Monterrey. Governor Carvajal's wife, Guiomar, secretly a Jewess, refused to accompany him to New Spain, but his sister Francisca and her husband Francisco Rodríguez de Matos, both ardent Judaizers, joined him with their nine children in 1580. Carvajal was arrested by the Inquisition in 1589 on the charge of having failed to denounce his niece Isabel as a Judaizer. Stripped of his command and sentenced to exile for six years, he died in the civil jail in Mexico City before he could leave the country. The governor's nephew and namesake was LUIS DE CARVAJAL "EL MOZO" ("the Younger"; 1566–1596). When Luis was 13 and attending a Jesuit school at Medina del Campo, his family introduced him to the practice of Judaism. Unaware of this, his uncle made him his heir and successor. After serving as the governor's aide in the wild territories under his dominion, Luis finally decided to leave his uncle and become more active in the practice and promulgation of secret Judaism. Like all Conversos in 16th-century New Spain, Luis' acquaintance with Judaism was extremely limited, but his knowledge of the Vulgate and Catholic devotional literature, which often included references to Judaism, made him the most learned Judaizer in his society. As he traveled, he encouraged and taught Conversos and led religious services. He was reconciled at the autoda-fé of March 14, 1590, and, to complete his sentence, was assigned to the school for Indians at Santa Cruz de Tlaltelolco as a teacher of rhetoric and secretary to the rector. He eventually reverted to Judaism, was rearrested in 1595, and burned at the stake on Dec. 8, 1596. His autobiography, letters, and last will are among the finest examples of Spanish belles lettres in colonial Mexico. He also composed religious poetry, though carvajal the fine mystical poem found in his trial records and often wrongly ascribed to him is the work of an earlier Portugese Converso, Dr. Manuel de Morales. Burned at the stake with Luis were his mother, FRANCISCA NÂ \!ejud\_0002\_0004\_0\_img0415 EZ, and three of his sisters: ISABEL, widow of the Judaizer Gabriel de Herrera; CATALINA, wife of the merchant adventurer Antonio Díaz de Cáceres; and LEONOR, wife of the wealthy mine-owner Jorge de Almeida. Before Luis' first arrest, his brothers BALTASAR (b. 1562) and MIGUEL (b.c. 1576) escaped to Europe. Their eldest brother, GASPAR, a Dominican priest in Mexico City, was arrested by the Inquisition for concealing his knowledge of the family's Judaizing activities but was reconciled in 1590. A sister, MARIANA, also reconciled in 1590, was burned at the stake in 1601, while the youngest sister ANA (b. c. 1578) was burned alive in 1649. Catalina's daughter, LEONOR DE CÂERES (b. 1586/7), was penanced by the Inquisition in 1601, but after a half century of apparently exemplary Christian life, appeared voluntarily before the Inquisition in 1650 to deny that she had ever Judaized. Her purpose was clearly to free her descendants from the disabilities attached to those found guilty by the Inquisition. Her great-grandson JOSE DE LA ROSA, hoping to escape the disabilities, failed in his attempt (in 1706) to disclaim her as an ancestor. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: A. Toro, La familia Carvajal, 2 vols. (1944); H.C. Heaton (ed.), Discovery of the Amazon According to the Account of Friar Gaspar de Carvajal (1934), 11–22 and index; Procesos de Luis   de Carvajal el Mozo (1935); P. Martinez del Rio, Alumbrado (1937); S.B. Lieberman, The Enlightened, the Writings of Luis de Carvajal, el Mozo (1967), incl. bibl. (Martin A. Cohen)