‘Matalotaje del anima’: Translation as Spiritual Resistance in The Writings of Luis de Carvajal/Joseph Lumbroso

Lecture by Ronnie Perelis, Chief Rabbi Dr. Isaac Abraham and Jelena (Rachel) Alcalay Associate Professor of Sephardic Studies at the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies of Yeshiva University

The case of Luis de Carvajal, the younger and his extended Conversos family is (justifiably) one of the most researched Inquisitorial cases from colonial Mexico. While the vast records of the two trials of the Carvajal family in 1589 and 1596 offer the historian ample material to investigate, there was for some time a major missing piece: the full manuscript of Luis de Carvajal’s religious writings that were stolen from the Mexican National Archives in 1932. In the Fall of 2016 this manuscript resurfaced and was returned to the Mexican authorities and made available for scholarship once again. In this talk, Prof. Perelis will share some new insights into Carvajal’s religious creativity as reflected in the original prayers and religious meditations that Carvajal composed inside this small leather-bound book.