By Ilan Stavans and Steve Sheinkin
Publisher: Basic Books
Why is a raven like a writing desk? Lewis Carroll posed this riddle, through the March Hare, in “Alice in Wonderland.”
Ilan Stavans poses a similar question in his new graphic novel, “El Iluminado,” illustrated by Steve Sheinkin, from Basic Books/Perseus. The book tackles the mystery of the Crypto-Jews, a population in the Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico, among other places, who claim Jewish ancestry dating back to the Spanish Inquisition. Who is a Crypto-Jew?
Stavans overcomes the first hurdle of tackling this subject: who can write about this group, if it is secret? Stavans appears in the book as, well, himself, a Mexican Jew of Polish ancestry. In the presumably fictional narrative, Stavans is invited to Santa Fe to give a lecture on Crypto-Judaism. While there, he is drawn into a web of intrigue by locals involving the suspicious death of Rolando, who claimed to have definitive proof not only of his own Jewish ancestry, but papers that would blow the lid off the secret Jewish roots of most of the population of New Mexico.
In a series of events that involve abandoned ranches, midnight bonfires, loose rafters, frisking a statue of the Virgin Mary, and having his hotel room tossed, Stavans manages to include most viewpoints on this matter: those who believe, those who disbelieve, and those who believe but prefer to keep it a secret. The most threatening group is made up of those who plan to exploit any proof for the sake of their own academic careers. Since this has been a pretty obscure topic until recently, readers “in the know” can speculate on who the real players might be.
At the same time, Stavans retells the historically documented story of Luis de Carvajal the Younger, whose insistence on Jewish study and practice during the time of the Inquisition led to his death and that of several members of his family in Mexico. Rolando’s modern story eerily mirrors that of Carvajal, who wrote his memoir under the name of Josef Lumbroso, Joseph the Illuminated.
Sheinkin, with whom Stavans has collaborated before, provides simple illustrations that mimic the two-dimensional quality of the santos that appear in early New Mexican religious art. Many panels involve no dialogue, just the puzzled looks of people involved in an enigma reaching deep into the past. This is a graphic novel in more than one sense of the word, in that it faithfully portrays Carvajal’s self-circumcision and Rolando’s attempt at authenticity.
According to an article in the New York Times, the Spanish government recently offered citizenship to descendants of those expelled from Spain during the Inquisition. So this topic is more timely than ever.
In the interest of transparency, I have written on this topic, and Stavans has acquired my work for some of his many publishing projects. My family is of Crypto-Jewish ancestry, but I was unaware of the history behind our own stories until Isaac Maimon, a Sephardic Jew from Turkey, made me aware of the larger culture of Jews who left Spain and Portugal during the Inquisition, but feigned conversion to Catholicism in order to remain in her territories. Most of their descendants have probably forgotten their ancestral roots, thinking they are Old Catholics, but the stories have persisted, and as time passes, more and more are coming out to claim their heritage. Simultaneously, DNA testing and the spread of knowledge through the internet have made it easier to put together the pieces of this puzzle.
Like the March Hare, Stavans wisely chooses to leave the question unanswered. For those not familiar with the history of the Crypto-Jews, “El Iluminado” offers a good introduction, especially for a generation growing up in an age of internet transparency, who might be mystified by a time when keeping family secrets could spell the difference between life and death.
Source: Book was provided by author for review. It was reviewed by Kathleen Alcalá.
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