| Sumario: | This article discusses a select sub-sample of those who testified before the Holy Office established in New Spain in 1571. The data appear in El Abecedario, a manuscript bound in Mexico at the beginning of the 18th century. This rare volume is part of the Special Collection of the Huntington Library and contains an inventory in a lax alphabetical and chronological order, which has been used by historians to reconstruct the life of Sephardic Jews in New Spain. The select sample includes 200 subjects (1527-1635) of a total sample of831. This information supports the theory of koineization of New World Spanish inasmuch as the subjects were from diverse peninsular regions as well as from villages, towns and cities, and intermingled with Spanish speakers born in the New World colonies, other residents, and Spanish Jews expelled to Portugal and repatriated into Spain. The subjects are also Afro-Hispanics or Europeans from Lutheran and Calvinist nations. Photos included.
|
|---|
