“Overall, this book provides a better understanding of the wider crypto-Jewish community in late sixteenth-century Mexico beyond the Carvajal narrative and beyond Mexico City. It also opens up the study of mining cities to which historians have not previously paid as much attention in the historiography.”—Rafaela Acevedo-Field, H-LatAm
“David Gitlitz gives a remarkably detailed account of the lives of three large extended families of immigrants to sixteenth-century Mexico who secretly practiced Judaism while earning their living in the burgeoning silver mining industry. He manages to combine scrupulous accuracy with a vivid narrative style that constantly maintains the reader’s interest and truly makes us care about these individuals.”—Michael McGaha, author of Coat of Many Cultures: The Story of Joseph in Spanish Literature, 1200–1492
“Drawing on a wide range of original sources, Gitlitz forces us to readdress our understanding of the dynamics of crypto-Jewish identity.”—Seth D. Kunin, author of Juggling Identities: Identity and Authenticity among the Crypto-Jews