Juggling identities among the crypto-Jews of the American southwest.

Abstract

The Crypto-Jews of New Mexico present a fascinating case of a modern community shaping and constructing identity in the context of competing identities. This article applies two concepts derived from structuralism as a means of examining and analysing this process. Bricolage is the primary theoretical concept. It provides the model of the different patterns which shape the construction of Crypto-Judaic identity. The second concept, that of the juggling of identities, shows the ways in which individuals with different Crypto-Jewish identities consciously and unconsciously emphasise different aspects of the underlying structural pattern. This aspect of agency creates the dynamic and transformational aspect which is significant to both Crypto-Jewish and modern identity.