The Carvajal family included many persons that were forced to convert to Catholicism
and later emigrated to the Nuevo Reino de León in Mexico led by Luis de Carvajal the
Elder, who was the Governor; about 100 family members and associates arrived in Mexico
in the later-16th century with him. His nephew was a mystic, an alumbrado (enlightened
one), Luis de Carvajal the Younger (hereafter referred to as Luis). It was Luis the
Younger and his family and associates that became embroiled in the Mexican Inquisition
for Judaizing. They were tried over many years while in prison, and ultimately executed
in the auto de fé of 1596. Luis' sisters Leonor and Isabel and his mother Francesca
were also tried and killed, as were their spouses and a number of associates at that
time. Close friends such as Justa Méndez were spared, as were Luis' younger sisters
Marianne and Ana and his niece Leonor de Cáceres. They each were eventually tried
again, and some were executed in later auto de fés. Trial transcripts for members
of the Carvajal community through the 1650's remain in archives in the Americas waiting
to be examined for religious poetry and prayers.
