Spirits of the Ordinary
6:02
Dmae Roberts
Crypto-Jews or hidden Jews are Sephaerdic Jews who emigrated to Mexico and other parts of Latin America to escape the Inquisition in the 1500’s. Many Latinos don’t even know their Jewish origins even though they might speak Ladino (mixture of Hebrew and Portugese and Spanish) and use Jewish chants in what they thought were exclusively Catholic services. Kathleen Alcala stumbled upon her Jewish origins and wrote Spirits of the Ordinary, a novel about her family history -- now a play in Portland. [transcript]
Broadcast: May 15 2003 on NPR Latino USA Subjects: Hispanic, International, Religious, Entertainment
