LATINA DISCOVERS HER JEWISH HERITAGE EXPLAINS MYSTERY.

Byline: Holly J. Andres Daily News Staff Writer

Gloria Trujillo always knew that her family was different.

Little things they did stood out from others, like the way her grandfather would bless her before she went to the store or how her mother separated pots and pans as she prepared a meal.

Those differences eventually led to a spiritual discovery that has re-shaped Trujillo's adult life, a secret that Trujillo believes had been kept on her mother's side for generations.

The secret she says is that her mother was a descendant of ``crypto-Jews,'' Jews who had been forced to convert to Christianity during the Spanish Inquisition in the 13th century but who continued to observe their religion in secret.

Emigrated from Spain

The Spanish Christians of Inquisition-era Spain called the secret Jews ``Morranos,'' an insult that meant swine. It is said the prayers the Jews composed asking forgiveness for their Christian oaths became the Kol Nidre prayer, a highlight of the Jewish High Holy Days, said Rabbi E. Robert Kraus.

``The prayer in the High Holy Days prayer book reads: Let all our vows and oaths, all the promises we make and the obligations we incur to you, oh God, between this Yom Kippur and the next be null and void. Should we, after honest effort find ourselves unable to fulfill them, then may we be absolved of them.''

Trujillo's maternal ancestors emigrated from Spain to the New World, settling in New Mexico in 1693. She says she and her sisters used to listen to her mothers and aunts talk about their grandparents.

``When I was growing up, many of our neighbors were first- and second-generation whose families had come from Mexico,'' she said. ``So, we were different that way. But we heard stories that made our grandparents seem even more different.''

`We were different'

One of the things that Trujillo remembers is a trip to Colorado to visit her grandfather when she was 9 years old.

``I remember he asked us to go to a store to buy cigars for him,'' she recalled. ``Before we left, he placed one hand one my head and one on my shoulder and he said a blessing. He did the same to my cousin. At the time, I thought it was a strange thing to do. But later I learned that Jewish parents said a blessing to their children when they went off on a journey.''

Grandmother's routine

Trujillo also heard that for an outwardly Catholic family, her grandfather never went to Mass. He always wore a hat indoors. Traditionally, Jewish men wore a hat at all times to remind them of God's presence.

And Trujillo's grandmother had a particular routine every Friday night.

``She worked part-time and every Friday night she would come home early and insist that everyone was clean and neat for dinner. She made sure that the linens had been changed and the house cleaned up,'' said Trujillo, who will speak at a ``social action'' Shabbat at Temple Beth Torah in Granada Hills on Friday.

``My aunts told me that she may have gone into another room to light candles on Friday.'' Jewish women traditionally prepare for the Sabbath by making sure their homes are clean, a festive meal is ready and the family is dressed up.

Interested in genealogy

These stories, plus the fact that when she asked her mother why she used separate pots and pans for meat and dairy foods, ``because that's what my mother did,'' were parts of a puzzle that finally came together after a visit to Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Trujillo became interested in genealogy from these family stories. She and her sister did research at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints genealogy library on Santa Monica Boulevard for many years. They eventually realized that they had to go to New Mexico after exhausting the information at the library.

On the last afternoon of their trip to New Mexico, Trujillo met a man at the Santa Fe Archives who also was researching the same name as her mother's family line.

``I said my mother's family wasn't rich or famous. Why are you researching her? He said, `I have something to tell you,' '' Trujillo said. ``He told me that my mother's family were among the original settlers in New Mexico and that they were crypto-Jews. I was astounded. That's when everything I had heard made sense to me.''

Trujillo has since embraced her religious roots. She took basic Judaism classes with her sister for two years. They took part in a ``rite of return'' ceremony in Arizona in 1996. But they have not gone through a formal conversion to Judaism.

Conversion to Judaism

Formal conversion to Judaism is a controversial issue.

``The Orthodox view is that there should be a standard that is followed as to who is a Jew,'' said Rabbi Kraus, of the Reform congregation of Temple Beth Torah. ``Orthodox and Conservative movements use the standard of birth by a Jewish mother or by a formal conversion. Reform Judaism has used a standard that if either parent is a Jew, then the children will be also.''

Kraus said that he feels that someone who is living a Jewish life, identifies publicly as a Jew and ``in the dark of night'' feels that they are Jewish, is a Jew.

With regard to crypto-Jews, Kraus said that ``only good will come'' of the profession of Judaism by the descendants of those who were forced under pain of death to renounce it.

Affirms her faith

Trujillo is a member of the Crypto-Judaic Society that was founded in 1991. There are about 175 members nationwide. The original intent of the group was to do research on the descendants of crypto-Jews in the United States.

But Trujillo is available to help other Latinos who think their family is different in the same way that she thought hers was.

``These families aren't unique to New Mexico or Arizona. There are families of crypto-Jews from Mexico who came to California also,'' Trujillo said.

While Trujillo is certain that there are local Latino families that haven't made the connection yet to their Jewish heritage, or who choose to still keep the secret, she affirms her faith. ``I consider myself a Jew.''

Social Action Shabbat, with guest speaker Gloria Trujillo, 8 p.m. Friday. Temple Beth Torah, 16651 Rinaldi St., Granada Hills. [phone].

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Photo

PHOTO ``I remember he asked us to go to a store to buy cigars for him. Before we left, he placed one hand on my head and one on my shoulder and he said a blessing. He did the same to my cousin. At the time, I thought it was a strange thing to do. But later I learned that Jewish parents said a blessing to their children when they went off on a journey.''

- GLORIA TRUJILLO

About her grandfather