This video is part of a Sephardic history series produced by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Dr. Benjamin Gampel provides a good review of the events that led to the rise of the Converso phenomena at the end of the 14th century. In the future, I will be adding links to the entire Sephardic history series.
Rabbi Juan Marcos Bejarano-Gutierrez is a graduate of the University of Texas at Dallas where he earned a bachelor of science in electrical engineering. He studied at the Siegal College of Judaic Studies in Cleveland and received a Master of Arts Degree with Distinction in Judaic Studies.
He completed his doctoral studies at the Spertus Institute of Jewish Learning and Leadership in Chicago in 2015. His doctoral dissertation is titled “Complex Identities: Christian and Jewish Attitudes Towards Conversos” and was accepted in September 2015.
He also studied at the American Seminary for Contemporary Judaism and received rabbinic ordination in 2011 from Yeshivat Mesilat Yesharim.
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AD MAJOREM DEI GLORIAM
The Seed of Camargo
In 1519, when Hernan Cortes learned he had been replaced as the Captain of the expedition to enter into the conquest of Mexico, he — under the subterfuge of preparation maneuvers and without approval from the Crown — absconded with ships and men from Hispañola and with these handful of men entered into the Conquest of Mexico. Cortes set fire to the ships on arrival at New Spain and salvaged all the iron nails to convert into weapons of war. He told his men to cut their hair short because there would not be much time for grooming in the coming months.
Months later, Governor Velasquez sent a military force of 900 men under the command of Panfilo Narvaez to find and capture Cortes. In Mexico, the wily Cortes pitted his smaller force of 700 men against the larger Narvaez force. By force and gold bribes to some of the leaders of Narvaez’s force, Cortes reduced the resistance of and captured Narvaez’s force at low loss of life. Twenty-five soldiers die. In the melee Narvaez loses an eye.
Cortes then merged the two forces into a unified body under his command. With about 1500 men and the alliance of one of the Indian tribes, Cortes was able to conquer in a two years’ time span millions of Mexica Indians led by the Chief Montezuma. Unintentional biological warfare, European diseases wipe out a larger segment of the Indigenous population. By 1521, he had gained partial control of the New World. Spanish colonization began shortly thereafter.
Genealogy information found on this site will showcase the colonists who beginning around 1521 progressively migrated north from Mexico City. By March 5, 1749 these intrepid true pioneers had established a frontier settlement in Camargo, Tamaulipas, a settlement with land grants on both sides of the Rio Grande and centered in present day Rio Grande City, Texas. These settlers and others were the first pioneering families in Texas. Colonization into the interior of Tejas, New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado and California had occurred earlier by other groups. Juan de Oñate established a settlement in Española, New Mexico in 1596.
B'nei Anusim Center for Education 
AD MAJOREM DEI GLORIAM
The Seed of Camargo
In 1519, when Hernan Cortes learned he had been replaced as the Captain of the expedition to enter into the conquest of Mexico, he — under the subterfuge of preparation maneuvers and without approval from the Crown — absconded with ships and men from Hispañola and with these handful of men entered into the Conquest of Mexico. Cortes set fire to the ships on arrival at New Spain and salvaged all the iron nails to convert into weapons of war. He told his men to cut their hair short because there would not be much time for grooming in the coming months.
Months later, Governor Velasquez sent a military force of 900 men under the command of Panfilo Narvaez to find and capture Cortes. In Mexico, the wily Cortes pitted his smaller force of 700 men against the larger Narvaez force. By force and gold bribes to some of the leaders of Narvaez’s force, Cortes reduced the resistance of and captured Narvaez’s force at low loss of life. Twenty-five soldiers die. In the melee Narvaez loses an eye.
Cortes then merged the two forces into a unified body under his command. With about 1500 men and the alliance of one of the Indian tribes, Cortes was able to conquer in a two years’ time span millions of Mexica Indians led by the Chief Montezuma. Unintentional biological warfare, European diseases wipe out a larger segment of the Indigenous population. By 1521, he had gained partial control of the New World. Spanish colonization began shortly thereafter.
Genealogy information found on this site will showcase the colonists who beginning around 1521 progressively migrated north from Mexico City. By March 5, 1749 these intrepid true pioneers had established a frontier settlement in Camargo, Tamaulipas, a settlement with land grants on both sides of the Rio Grande and centered in present day Rio Grande City, Texas. These settlers and others were the first pioneering families in Texas. Colonization into the interior of Tejas, New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado and California had occurred earlier by other groups. Juan de Oñate established a settlement in Española, New Mexico in 1596.
If your surname is
— Albornoz, Alvarado, Alvarez, Ayala, Baez, Ballez, Balli, Barrera, Bazan, Benavides, Blanco, Borrego, Botello, Buentello, Canales, Cano, Cantu, Carrales, Carrion, Castillo, Castoreno, Castro, Cavazos, Campo, Cervantes, Chapa, Cortes, de Leon, del Canto, de Charles, de la Garza, Diaz, Elizondo, Escobar, Estrada, Farias, Flores, Fernandez, Fuentes, Garcia, Gil, Gomez, Gonzalez, Guerra, Guerrero, Gutierrez, Herrera, Hernandes, Hinojosa, Ibarra, Izaguirre, Jimenez, Longoria, Lopez, Lopez de Jaen, Lozano, Madrid, Martinez, Mendoza, Mireles, Montalvo, Montemayor, Olivarez, Olvera, Ortiz, Peña, Perez, Porcalla, Porcaya, Puentes, Quiñones, Quintanilla, Ramirez, Rendon, Reyna, Rivera, Robles, Rocha, Rodriguez, Saldana, Saldivar, Salinas, Sanchez, Sandoval, Serna, Servin, Solis, Sosa, Terrazas, Torres, Treviño, Valle, Vela, Vera, Villarreal,Ybarra, Ynojosa and many more —
You are part of this great story!
IAM-FROM-RIO-GRANDE-CITY-TX—–MY-GREAT-GREAT-GRAND-CHILDREN–ARE–13-GENERATION–TEJANOS//