"An increasing number of Hispanics living in the US Southwest claim to be of crypto-Jewish heritage, i.e., of Marranos, a derogatory term for Sephardic Jews who converted to Christianity in Inquisition-era Spain but continued to practice Judaism secretly. Some descendants of these New Christians in this region formed Catholic brotherhoods or Penitentes, who still engage in out- dated rituals including self-flagellation. Moradas are their chapels. Drawing on rabbinic sources (Midrash) and psychohistory, Simms (humanities/English, U. of Waikato, New Zealand) sheds light on the ambiguous identity of these misunderstood groups of former Jews and the broader issue of the myriad ways Jews respond to living in a non-Jewish world."

Norman Simms is Associate Professor in the Department of Humanities and English at University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand. He is the author of A New Midrashic Reading of Geoffrey Chaucer: His Life and Works, 2004; Crypto-Judaism, Madness, and the Female Quixote: Charlotte Lennox as Marrana in Mid-Eighteenth-Century England, 2004; and Festivals of Laughter, Blood and Justice in Biblical and Classical Literature, 2007.

INTRODUCTION. The Theoretical Problem of the Penitentes. The Problem Slowly Expands. Outline of this Book. More Theoretical and Methodological Problems. Incidentalism. A New Approach. New Distinctions: Marranos, Crypto-Jews and Pseudo-Jews. New Contexts. The Artistic/Aesthetic View. The Rhetorical/Dramatic View. The Psychological View/Psychohistory. Post-Post-Modernism: Microhistory. Post-Colonialism. Feminist and Gay Studies. Chapter I. WHAT DID THE PENITENTES REALLY DO? Medieval Flagellants. Third Order of Franciscans. Aztec, Mexican, Pueblo, Shamanistic Rites and Secret Societies among Native Americans. A Further Speculation: or, A Shot in the Dark. Ghosts, Demons and Marranos. Marranism as a Way of Doubt. Four New Questions. Chapter II. MARRANOS, PENITENTES, AND THE BAROQUE ANAMORPHOSES IN ACTION. The Fourth Influence: Marranos and Crypto-Jews. Marrano Testimonies. A New Overview of Penitentes and Marranos in the New World. The Problem of Marrano Tradition and Experience. Simulation and Dissimulation in Europe during the Period of the Baroque. Chapter III. THE MACHINERY OF SECRETS AND THE MACHINATIONS OF SILENCE: CONSPIRACIES, CONTRAPTIONS AND LUDIBRIA. Spaceless Space and Timeless Time. New Models of Behavior and Social Deception. Familiares, Malsines and Polillios. The Alternative Counter-Contraptions of the Ramban, a new Kabbalah and the so-called Grandees of French Jewry. Una Fiesta de Sangre. Confusion and Discombobulation. Passion’s Ludibrium Midrashed. Machines, Apparatus and Contraptions: Instruction, Construction and Destruction. Ludibrium: a machine to see and feel insults. Bricolage, Jonglerie and other Gadgets. Tikkun ha-olam, ha-nefesh, ha-goof, ha-shem. The Contraption that Failed. Chapter IV. ROSSCURRENTS AND UNDERCURRENTS. Section 1. The Half-Way Markers. Penitentes, Thaipusam, and the Fillipino Crucifiers: Ecstasy, Agony and Their Social and Psychological Significance as Festivals of Blood and Pain. Thaipusam. Filipino Flagellants and Self-Crucifiers. Penitentes of the Southwestern United States. Enargeia versus energeia. Religions of the Father and of the Son. The Argument thus Far. Section 2. A Survey of Fuzzy Jews in Colonial America. Concealing, Preserving and Reshaping. Wachtel’s Sensitive Study of Souvenirs. Zeugma and the Marrano Complex. Crypto-Jews and Marranos in Portuguese America. From Toleration to Expulsion in the French Zones. Jews in Dutch America. “Brokers of the World” in a Broken and Baroque World. Chapte r V. PENITENTES AND THE CRAZY THINGS THEY DO: OR, HOW TO BE JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN AT THE SAME TIME. Two Ways of Being Jewish in a Non-Jewish World. Rambam vs Ramban: Who Won the Debates?. The Apparent and the Concealed. The Sacred and the Secret. What Happened to Yemen. The Metamorphosis of Old Sepharad. A Heritage of Guilt. The Mean Son’s Question. Chapter VI. FESTIVALS OF BLOOD HERE AND BLOODY TRIALS THERE: PLAYING ROLES AND ROLLING ALONG. A Rhetoric of Blood. Multiple Personalities, Careers and Strategies of Dissimulation. Penitence and Piety. Making History out of Midrash. Historicity, Hysteria and Histrionics. Dormant Memories and Midrashim. Chapter VII. REACHING TOWARDS A CONCLUSION AND SOME NEW QUESTIONS. In Search of the Bizarre and the Uncanny. The World Beneath the Surface of the World. Delusion, Child’s Play, or Enargeia. Troubled Children of the New World. Delusions in the New World. Children’s Games and Delusions. Children among the Marranos: A Psychohistorical Problem. Incomplete Mourning and Unresolved Grief: Marranos and Crypto-Jews in Exile on the Moradas. The Clinical Problem. New Synthetic Approach Needed. Components of the New Approach. The Midrashing Machine. Chapter VIII. EPILOGUE. Meditations and Speculations. Midrash or Mishmosh? Habits of Mind. Paradigms for Jews in a Non-Jewish World. Midrashing the Midrash. Mythos. Bibliography. Index.