Luis de Carvajal (el Mozo)

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Luis de Carvajal (el Mozo) (* 1566 in Benavente (Zamora) , Spain ; † December 8, 1596 in Mexico City ) was a Spanish merchant and poet of Jewish-Portuguese origin who was burned as a heretic by the Inquisition in the viceroyalty of New Spain . He is revered as a martyr of Judaism .

Life

Origin and youth

Luis de Carvajal was born in Benavente, Spain. He came from a family of Portuguese Jews on his mother's side . His parents were Francisco Rodríguez de Mato and Francisca Núñez de Carvajal. Luis de Carvajal y de la Cueva was his maternal uncle. The grandparents Gaspar de Carvajal and Francisca de León were as conversos to Christianity converted. Luis took his mother's name and added "el Mozo" (the boy) to distinguish himself from his uncle of the same name.

In Mexico

In 1580 his uncle received the mandate to develop and pacify the "New Kingdom of León" (Spanish: Nuevo Reyno de León ) as governor and captain general .

Carvajal Senior bought a ship and won around a hundred families who wanted to go to the New World as settlers. Most of them came from his relatives or his wife. Among them was Luis "el Mozo" de Carvajal and his parents.

With his older brother Baltasar he traveled as a merchant through the valley of Mexico. At the same time he dealt intensively with the Jewish religion of his ancestors, which he recognized as correct and secretly practiced ( crypto-judaism ). He composed (with his brother) religious chants for Jewish holidays; a "Widdui" (confession of sin) in the form of a sonnet is preserved .

In 1590 he was accused of heresy by the Inquisition, along with his uncle and other members of his family . He pleaded guilty, vowed to return to Catholicism and was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Mexico City Hospital for the Insane. His brother Baltasar managed to escape the inquisitors.

In 1595 he was accused of having apostated again. The allegation was reinforced by his autobiography, which he wrote while in prison; he directed it with the words "En el nombre del Señor de los Ejércitos" (German: "In the name of the Lord of Hosts"), a translation of the Jewish name of God Be Shem Adonai Zebaot .

Under the torture of the inquisitors, he revealed the names of 121 other people who were also to continue practicing the Jewish rite; he later revoked this admission, but was sentenced to death anyway. He tried to escape by jumping out of the courthouse window, but was caught.

On December 8, 1596, the Inquisition held a car dairy in Mexico City. Luis de Carvajal died there at the stake with his mother and sister Mariana.

He was able to hide from the Inquisition his diaries in notebook format, which he wrote during his imprisonment, and were written in small print, and thus passed on to posterity. They are eloquent testimony to the cruelty of the Inquisition in Mexico in the 16th century.

swell

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Natasha Pizzey: Secret Mexican diary sheds light on Spanish Inquisition. BBC News, June 4, 2017, accessed June 4, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Carvajal, Luis de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Carvajal el Mozo, Luis de (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish merchant and poet
DATE OF BIRTH 1566
PLACE OF BIRTH Benavente (Zamora) , Spain
DATE OF DEATH December 8, 1596
Place of death Mexico city