 Hola!
As I was strolling through the Dickens Fair recently I came upon a dreidel which looked just like a pirinola Mexican spinning top that we used to play with as a kids. So I started thinking about the relationship between the two toys.
As most Latinos know, almost all of us are mestizos with our family reporting some distant relative that was French, German, Irish, Native-American or who knows what else? On one side of the family are roots are suppose to trace back to the Basque country in Spain on the other side because of the Mexican revolution most of our history is lost but rumor has it we have a some French and possibly Jewish blood. So, my sister went in search of her Jewish roots and actually sweet-talked my brother into giving up some of his DNA to be tested. Apparently the continuous path for mtDNA is through the direct maternal line, it gets really complicated from here and I won't even venture to explain it because I don't understand it myself.
Well, the tests came back and apparently we have a touch of Jewish blood in us. Who knew? Which by the way, still makes me Mexican and Catholic. But I found the history of the Jewish immigration to the Americas very interesting and since we are in the midst of the Hanukkah season I thought I would write a little about that and include a couple of recipes for this celebration.
¡Feliz Januca y Navidad!
Darlene
P.S. After much pressure I finally started a CasaQ facebook page, but we have no friends! =( So, to entice you to become our friend we will resort to cheap tricks. Yes, prizes! Become a friend to automatically enter to win two dozen of the winning tamales from the CasaQ & NBC Bay Area Best Darn Tamale Contest airing this weekend on NBC Bay Area or CasaQ's 5pc Querida Ornament Collection.
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Jews in the Americas
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As we celebrate the Christmas season with parties, posadas, pastorelas and other
Christian festivities, it might be easy to forget that there are more than 500,000 Jews of Latino descent celebrating
Hanukkah every year. Half of whom live in Argentina alone, with large communities also present in Brazil, Chile and Mexico and parts of the United States.
 The first arrivals were Sephardi Jews. The name stems from the term, Sepharad, a Biblical location identified as the Iberian Peninsula, which is modern day Spain and Portugal. In
1478, Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile launched a massive campaign to forcibly convert the Jewish population in Spain to Christianity and eventually expel all Jews during the Spanish Inquisition. The main justification the monarchy gave for formally expelling all
Jews from Spain was the "great harm suffered by Christians from the contact, intercourse and communication which they
have with the Jews, who always attempt in various ways to seduce
faithful Christians from our Holy Catholic Faith." They were afraid that if these recent converts had contact with practicing Jews they would be tempted to convert back to Judaism.
Many of the new converts called Crypto-Jews or Conversos, who were forcibly converted to
Christianity during the Spanish Inquisition, were baptized to escape expulsion. Conversos were negatively referred to as Marranos a slang term meaning "swine" or "filthy" in Spanish which stemmed from the ritual prohibition against eating pork, a prohibition practiced by Jews. During the Spanish Inquisition approximately 200,000 Jews with historic figures ranging as high as 800,000 fled Spain escaping torture and persecution some settling in northern Mexican states of Sonora, Chihuahua, Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas, Coahuila and what is now New Mexico, Texas, Arizona and parts of California. Although Mexico was still under Spanish rule at the time, the Mexican Inquisition was not as heavily enforced by the Catholics as in Spain.
Because Sephardi Jews were of a similar complexion and hair color as well as speaking Ladino, a Castilian Spanish heavily influenced by Hebrew and Aramic these traits helped ease their integration
into Mexican and Latin American society.
 Many Conversos secretly practiced Judaism while publicly adhering to another faith, in this instance Catholicism. The Conversos assimilated in the 19th century, and descendants of the
Conversos are often devout Catholic families who continue to unknowingly practice rituals based in Judaism. Some customs persevere such as lighting candles on Friday before sundown for the Sabbath, keeping Kosher by separating meat and dairy and closing their businesses on
Saturdays. Although the Catholic Church condemned the observance of circumcision as a mortal sin and ordered against its practice in 1442, its practice continued as male circumcision is considered a commandment from God in Judaism.
The second wave of immigration came from Ashkenazic Jews between 1911 and 1913 as a result of the crumbling Ottoman Empire. The third and final wave of Jewish immigration came from Russia after the first World War. Ashkenazic Jews, literally "German Jews" are descendants from Western and Central Europe who spoke Yiddish, a Germanic language with Hebrew and Aramaic influence.
 Many of the Latin-American Jews found on the east coast, particularly Florida, arrived
from Peru, Argentina and Cuba in the 1960's and later, had fled their countries for economic or political reasons.
Some Latino families have been puzzled upon discovering a worn Torah or Menorah amongst their family treasures and have began to trace their ancestral roots through modern-day DNA testing to quench their curiosity.
Diego Rivera, Mexico's famous painter and Converso descendant wrote in 1935, "Jewishness is the dominant element in my life. From
this has come my sympathy with the downtrodden masses which motivates
all my work."
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Hannukah - Latino Style
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 Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights, is an eight-day Jewish Holiday commemorating the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt in the Second Century BC. Hanukkah is observed for eight nights, starting on the 25th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar, which in 2009 begins at sundown on Friday, December 11 and lasts through sundown December 19.
In Mexico, Hanukkah is written "Januca." The Jewish Hanukkah customs
are very similar to those of Jews elsewhere except that the food may be
a little different. There is a custom of eating foods fried or baked in olive oil every day during Hanukkah to commemorate the Miracle of the Maccabees.
 Instead of latkes and sufganiot which are common among the Ashkenazic Jews of Russia and Eastern Europe the Sephardic Jews of Mexico tend to favor things like bimuelos or Buñuelos. Buñuelos are fried fritters drenched in sugar or syrup and also balls of corn dough with marmalade inside.
Like their Jewish counterparts around the world they play the game of dreidel. In Mexico a similar toy which most likely originated from the dreidel, called pirinola or toma todo is used sans the Jewish symbols but the rules of the game are the same.
¡Feliz Januca!
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Buy Three & Get One FREE
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Potato Latkes
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Fried Potato Pancakes, called Latkes in Yiddish and Levivot in Hebrew are traditionally eaten on Hanukkah in commemoration of the oil that miraculously burned for eight days when the Maccabees purified and rededicated the holy Temple in Jerusalem.
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 lb potatoes
- 1/2 cp finely chopped onion
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 cp olive oil
- Sourcream or Applesauce
INSTRUCTIONS:
Preheat oven to 250ºF
Peel potatoes and coarsely grate by hand, transferring to a large bowl of cold water as grated. Soak potatoes 1 to 2 minutes after last batch is added to water, then drain well in a colander.
Spread grated potatoes and onion on a kitchen towel and roll up jelly-roll style. Twist towel tightly to wring out as much liquid as possible. Transfer potato mixture to a bowl and stir in egg and salt.
Heat 1/4 cup oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking. Working in batches of 4 latkes, spoon 2 tablespoons potato mixture per latke into skillet, spreading into 3-inch rounds with a fork. Reduce heat to moderate and cook until undersides are browned, about 5 minutes. Turn latkes over and cook until undersides are browned, about 5 minutes more. Transfer to paper towels to drain and season with salt. Add more oil to skillet as needed. Keep latkes warm on a wire rack set in a shallow baking pan in oven.
Serve with sourcream or applesauce.
Note:
Latkes may be made up to 8 hours ahead. Reheat on a rack set over a baking sheet in a 350°F oven, about 5 minutes.
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holiday customs, traditions, entertaining tips and recipes from Mexico,
Spain, Puerto Rico, Cuba and other Latin American countries |
Bunuelos
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 There is a simple way to make bunuelos. Buy flour tortillas, fry them and sprinkle with sugar. I must say I am strongly opposed to this method but do as you wish. Here is, I think, the superior and proper way...
INGREDIENTS:
4 eggs
1/4 cup sugar
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp Salt
Topping:
1 cup sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
DIRECTIONS:
Heat canola or vegetable oil in a shallow skillet until hot.(350 degrees)
Beat together eggs and sugar until thick and lemon colored. Add flour baking powder and salt to egg mixture. Knead dough on flour coat cutting board until smooth. Divide dough into 16 equal balls with floured hands. Let sit for 20 minutes. Roll out on floured board into round 5 - 7" tortilla shapes.
Drop flat into hot oil, brown lightly about 30 seconds on each side. Remove from skillet and sprinkle to taste with topping mixture of cinnamon and sugar.
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