Episode Details

A gripping new graphic novel, “El Iluminado,” uncovers a 430-year-old secret: hidden Jewish lives in New Mexico’s Santa Fe, where families secretly practiced Judaism under Catholic facades to escape the Spanish Inquisition. Based on the lost diary of Luis de Carvajal—a document once vanished from Mexico’s archives—the story follows fictional brothers, one a priest, one a rebel, who believe they’re crypto-Jewish descendants. Professor Ilan Stavans, who studies the Jewish-Catholic symbols on New Mexico headstones, reveals how these cemeteries whisper ancestral truths. The diary’s rediscovery in a Sotheby’s catalog turned into a real-life detective mystery. As Latino identity grows in the U.S., Stavans celebrates this Sephardic legacy—now revived through DNA, conversions, and art—while warning of rising global anti-Semitism and its potential to threaten this hidden heritage.

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