Rosalinda Mendez Gonzalez, Emeritus Professor at Southwestern College in California, created in Fall 2009, an Hispanic Heritage Month “Mini-Museum of Mexican American History.” Central, were a series of art scroll history panels depicting the evolution of the Indigenous and Hispanic background of the Mexican-American people of the U.S. Southwest, including people of Judaic and Sephardic Heritage. These depicted how the conflicts between Christianity, Judaism and Islam led to the discovery of America and the Spanish Conquest. In 1995 and 1996, Prof. Gonzalez organized “Searching for Our Roots” Conferences on the multi-cultural heritage of Mexican Americans, including those of Sephardic Jewish heritage .

“Dona Gracia Nasi of the House of Mendes: Sephardic Resistance to the Spanish Inquisition” (Tues-145), 3:00-4:15 P.M.

This is a slide lecture on the Sephardim and “Secret Jews” of Medieval Spain and Portugal, concentrating on the life and legacy of Dona Gracia Nasi of the House of Mendes, great Sephardic heroine of the 16th century.

On her husband’s death, the young widow fled Iberia to Antwerp with members of her family, including her young daughter and her nephew Joseph Nasi. With the Inquisition on their heels, they then fled to Italy, Salonika, and finally to the Ottoman Empire. Using the great wealth and commercial activities of the House of Mendes, she created a vast secret network that saved hundreds of Spanish and Portuguese Jews from the Inquisition.

This slide lecture was first prepared for the San Diego Opera‘s 1997 premiere of “The Conquistador” based on the life of Don Luis de Carvajal and his converso family in northern New Spain.

Topics: Immigration and migration over the ages, Jews of the Southwest United States, Jewish history and culture, Sephardic research