Alonso Hernandez Bonilla, General Inquisitor of Mexico. Report of the Auto-da-Fé held in Mexico on the 15th December, 1577.

(MEXICO).

20th December

Mexico

1577

Manuscript written in Spanish, black ink on paper.

Remarkably early document relating to a Jew facing the Inquisition in the Americas. The Mexican Inquisition was formally established in 1571. Six years later this document attests that a Portuguese man, one Hernando Alvarez Pliego of Oporto, is accused of practicing Judaism and was processed in the Auto de Fe in Mexico City, held in the “central church with much assistance of the people.” Furthermore, while under rigorous torture, Hernando Alvarez Pliego spoke of having “accomplices” in his Jewish practices in Mexico - although he has yet to name them. The Mexican Inquisition was an extension of the Spanish Inquisition, now to new territory: New Spain, in the Americas. For the Spanish conquest of Mexico was not only a political event for the Spanish, but a religious one as well. When the Inquisition was brought to the New World, it was employed for the same reasons and against the same social groups as suffered in Europe itself. Almost all of the events associated with the official establishment of the Holy Office of the Inquisition occurred in Mexico City, lasting from 1571 to 1820. In that period, some fifty people were executed by the Mexican Inquisition, including 29 executed as "Judaizers” - of the 324 who were prosecuted for practicing the Jewish religion. See John F. Chuchiak, The Inquisition in New Spain, 1571-1820: A Documentary History (2012) and José Toribio Medina, Historia del Tribunal del Santo Oficio de la Inquisicion en Mexico (2010) -. http://historiayverdad.org/Inquisicion/Historia-del-tribunal-del-santo-oficio-de-la-inquisicion-en-Mexico.pdf.