Mexican Jewish? A conversation with Ilan Stavans

ABSTRACT

Mexican Jews are at a crossroads. Their history reaches back to after 1492, when a number arrived as conversos, crypto-Jews, and New Christians. The Holy Inquisition was founded in Mexico in 1535, with Bishop Juan de Zumárraga. Twenty-nine “deviants” were executed during this period. Ashkenazic and Sephardi Jews arrived at the end of the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth, followed by a wave of refugees of the Second World War. Today the Jewish community is made up of Orthodox Jews, exiled Israelis, and others. With democracy a messy affair, the government unable to ascertain its authority, and the drug cartel in an intense battle for power and territory, their position is delicate at best. Ilan Stavans is arguably the most prominent Mexican Jew inside and out. In books like On Borrowed Words (2001), Return to Centro Histórico (2010), and El Iluminado (2012), as well as in movies such as My Mexican Shiva (2007), directed by Alejandro Springall and based on his story “Morirse está en hebreo,” he has reflected on the dilemmas—cultural, political, and religious—facing this minority of close to 40,000 in a national population of 115 million. This conversation took place in April 2014.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on Contributor

Dalia Wassner is Research Associate at the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, Brandeis University. Address: Institute for Liberal Arts & Interdisciplinary Studies, 120 Boylston Street, 5th Floor, Suite 505, Boston, MA 02116, USA.