For Crypto-Jews of New Mexico, art is a window into secret life

Published on July 16, 2012

Artist Anita Rodriguez’s “aha” moment came after reading “To the End of the Earth: A History of the Crypto-Jews of New Mexico.”

Sender of anti-Semitic texts to N.M. classmate is suspended

Published on May 29, 2012

A New Mexico high school student was suspended for sending hundreds of anti-Semitic text messages to a Jewish classmate.

In a remote New Mexican valley, a Jewish skiing legacy at Taos

Published on December 21, 2011

One of the most wonderful things about skiing is the sense of seclusion, the incomparable quietude and serenity of standing atop a 12,000-foot peak surveying miles and miles of snow-covered emptiness. Somehow the prosaic concerns of the everyday world don’t seem to reach there.

CIA drone kills U.S.-born al Qaeda cleric in Yemen

Published on October 1, 2011

Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born Islamist militant, was killed in Yemen on Friday in a CIA drone strike described by President Barack Obama as "another significant milestone" in efforts to defeat al Qaeda.

Spectator - Sephardia Secrets

By Gaby Friedman
Published on July 7, 2005

Elaine Romero experienced "a cool fusion of art and life" when she wrote the play "Secret Things."

The play tells the story of Delia, a Latino journalist, who goes to New Mexico to investigate the origins of an anonymous package she received postmarked from there containing articles about Crypto-Jews (that is, descendants of the "Marrano" Jews of the Spanish Inquisition, who openly practiced Catholicism but conducted Jewish rituals in secret to escape persecution). In New Mexico, Delia finds herself mysteriously drawn to the world of Crypto-Jews, and reluctantly comes to terms with her own Crypto-Jewish roots.

When Romero, also a Latino, was writing the play, the same thing happened.

Home on the Mesa

Published on March 30, 2000

Some folks say New Mexico is the face of America's future. A barren moonscape of rocky peaks and desert mesas, it's a study in contrasts, a high-tech haven amid some of the nation's worst poverty. It's home to the Los Alamos nuclear labs and the ancient Acoma pueblo, America's oldest continuous human settlement. It's where the eternal meets the unexpected.
That's never been truer than it is this spring. Democrats in Albuquerque, the state's largest city, are angling to capture the local congressional seat for the first time in decades. The primary race is becoming a nasty, four-way brawl. It's also becoming, in a mysterious way, a vision of American Jewry's future.