It goes without saying that history is important, and the recording of history even more so. Preserving events, concepts, people and ideas for future generations is how people learn from the mistakes of the past and honor those who came before. On Friday, Sept. 21, a new collection was added to the South Texas Archives in the Jernigan Library that upholds these values and contributes to preserving the ethnical and cultural history of South Texas and Northern Mexico and their inhabitants.
The Ricardo and Debbie Backal Crypto-Judaism Rare Book Collection offers an extensive 24 monographs, 37 calendar and 29 paintings of cultural or historical value for public admiration and research. These monographs, some of which date back to the 16th century, are the product of nearly half a millennium of religious persecution of Spanish-born Jews who in defiance of Spain’s Alhambra Decree (1492) continued practicing Judaism while claiming themselves to be Christians. According to South Texas Archives collection’s section, these people came to be known as Crypto-Jews.
“We needed a place for these documents in South Texas,” Ricardo Backal said during his speech before the unveiling of the Ricardo and Debbie Backal Crypto-Judaism Rare Book Collection Exhibit.
Placing this collection with the archives creates a place for these fragments of history to be properly preserved, studied, and hopefully, will allow people to be more aware of the history of South Texas and perhaps learn something new about their family history, he said.
“Crypto-Judaism is everywhere, people just don’t know what they’re looking at,” Dr. Miguel Bedolla, who also spoke at the unveiling of the exhibit, said. Dr. Bedolla spoke about the influence of Crypto-Judaic practitioners on Catholic and general Christian practices and iconography from Brownsville to San Antonio.
Once acquired by the South Texas Archives, the rare books and calendars were digitized by Processing Archivist Matthew Tallant and Digital Archivist Daniel Thacker, who carefully and painstakingly handled the centuries-old monographs and calendars and uploaded them to the South Texas Archives for public viewing without risk of damaging the priceless artifacts. The actual manuscripts themselves are kept in a precise climate-controlled environment within the South Texas Archives in the Jernigan Library to ensure their longevity.
The Ricardo and Debbie Backal Crypto-Judaism Rare Book Collection was made possible by the generous donation from Mr. and Mrs. Ricardo and Debbie Backal, the Texas A&M University-Kingsville Department of Language & Literature, the Hispanic Heritage Committee, Sigma Delta Pi and the South Texas Archives.