Marranos, a Lost People. Origin and believes

Essay by Anonymous UserCollege, UndergraduateA+, November 1996

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Some people might call them New Jews, some New Christians, and others call them Marranos. The majority of the world population has no idea who the Marranos are. To begin to explain these secret people, one must first receive a lesson in World History. We will begin in the 1492.

In school, we are brainwashed to connect the year 1492 with the year that Columbus discovered the New World. Yet, if we look at the year 1492, there are other occurrences which are noteworthy. For instance, in the year 1492, Spain, the country which sent Columbus to America, decided to officially expel the Jews from Spain. The Jews were forced to either leave Spain, convert to Catholicism, or be put to death. This was not a surprise to the Jews of Spain. Since 1931, there had been anti-Jewish riots throughout Spain. For years, the Jews had been converting to Christianity to escape religious persecution.

These Jews were called conversos. The twist to this tale is that these conversos actually were only putting on a front. They still considered themselves Jews. They practiced in secret.1 The Spanish made every attempt to search out and punish these conversos. Some Jews chose not to convert and they moved to Portugal. . Unfortunately, Portugal, in 1497, expelled the Jews from its borders as well. Anti-semitism was growing in Western Europe and the Jews needed to escape. The prime choice seemed to be so obvious. The Jews went to the New World.

The immigration of the Marranos to the new world might have begun with none other than Christopher Columbus. This, of course, is not definite, but there has been research which has shown that Columbus was indeed a Marrano. Apparently his parents were Marranos.2 Even though there are some disagreements about this...