Publisher's Synopsis
Crypto-Judaism is the secret adherence to Judaism while publicly professing to be of another faith; practitioners are referred to as "crypto-Jews".
The author, an articulate and brilliant photo-anthropologist by vocation, set to uncover the Sephardic roots in the Southwest, which was always suspected to exist, as result of the expulsion of the Sephardic Jews from Spain in 1492. Many Jews went to Portugal and Turkey, others decided to join the expeditions to the New World, particularly New Spain, as Mexico was then called. Sociologists had anecdotal evidence of the Sephardim among the Mexican American population in Colorado and New Mexico. The remoteness of their hilly geography made a perfect setting for the Sephardic Jews to hide and be left alone from the shadows of the Inquisition. Living in disguise meant to behave like Christians in public and practice their Jewish customs at home, away from prying eyes.
