Customer Reviews

La Gesta del Marrano (Coleccion Fabula) (Spanish Edition)

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Marcos Aguinis is truly a gifted writter and this, I believe, is his masterpiece. The story centers around what could be considered the first Jewish martyr in Latin America...his life falls into the hands of the Spanish Inquisition's American tentacles and all because he fails to believe in the imposed religion's symbols (he argues -rightly so- that the venerance of the "cross" is the perpetuation of a symbol of oppression and torture), he holds onto his life through logical dissertations with his inquisitors and finally ends up burned at the stake because they did not know what else to do with him (they just could not argue any longer when held to close scrutiny of illogical beliefs)...but even more poignantly is the underlying story of man's own destruction of man, which at this time had masqueraded within the strict confines of organized and established religion...the only word that came to my mind at the end was: tolerance...we are in dire need of tolerance in our world, as it was then...so it is now...a truly awesome book! a must read!

A través de un personaje, el lector puede vislumbrar las peripecias e injusticias que debió pasar el pueblo judío en manos de la inquisición, es decir, la iglesia. Narrada brillantemente con la sutileza y provocación de Marcos Aguinis, es una novela que invita a ser leída. Sinceramente recomendada.

Aguinis shows in his book the epopee of a person who discovers his father is a crypto-Jew. Aguinis describes somebody who wants to be loyal to his re-discovered Jewish origins and through the study he manages to become a Jew and to contact cryto-Jews. The story is really interesting and encouraging to those who currently are crypto-Jews.

The Inquisition was on the lookout for any sign of "Jewishness", "Judaizmo" in Spanish. This was easier for the Nazis.
Once a Jew was arrested by the Inquisition, the first step was to map his belongings, confiscate them, and sell them. The proceeds were "transferred to the Holy Office" that's "El Santo Oficio", i.e. the Inquisition, to be used against the expenses incurred by the transportation of the culprit from his place of arrest to his place of judgement; by his upkeeping when in jail; by the salaries of guards, other jail personnel, "inquisitors" (torturers), executioners, etc. Allegedly, not a farthing went into the pockets of the Holy Office.
The Nazis mapped the belongings of the Jews well before their arrest.
The Inquisition declared Jews who converted to Catholicism to be "New Christians", as opposed to "Old Christians". New Christians's blood was impure, and remained impure, for generations.
Nazis declared that only Aryans were pure.

The book is an extraordinary work of historical truth, written by a master of the language (Latin American Spanish). I don't know if it has been translated into English and/or other languages. It certainly should.

This is a must read for anybody who wants to get inmersed in what the inquisition was like in South America and how Jews needed to hide in order not to get punished or killed.

I couldn't stop reading it. A triumph!

This historical novel written in Spanish is probably one of the best I have ever read. Set in Spain and Portugal during the Inquisition, it moves quickly towards to South american continent, and the persecution of the Jewish people in Spain and Portugal and how this continued in Argentina, Chile and Peru. I must admit, although spanish is my native tongue, its not an easy read because I am more comfortable in the english language, yet this book is just to incredible to pass up. If you speak spanish, I would recommend this book immediately

Un gran libro, a recomendar a todos los interesados en la historia, sobretodo en los inicios de la América colonial, cripto-judaísmo e Inquisición. Mis felicitaciones al autor, Marcos Aguinis.