Luis de Carabajal y Cueva

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Don Luis de Carabajal y Cueva (1539, Magodorio, Portugal—ca. 1595) was Spanish governor of Nuevo León.

Born in Portugal, Carbajal was appointed governor of a district in Mexico in 1579. In consideration of the appointment of governor, he undertook to colonize the territory at his own expense, being allowed the privilege of repaying himself out of the revenues. His original jurisdiction, under the name of Nuevo Reino de Leon (New Kingdom of Leon), was to comprise a somewhat ill-defined territory, beginning at the port of Tampico, extending along the River Panuco, and thence turning northward; but it was not to exceed 200 leagues either way. It would seem to have included Tamaulipas, as well as the states of Nuevo Leon and Coahuila, and parts of San Luis Potosí, Zacatecas, Durango, Chihuahua and Texas. Carabajal received his royal patent as governor of Nuevo Reino de Leon on May 31, 1579. He arrived in Mexico in 1580, and began to prepare for his occupancy of the territory. He planted his colony on a site formerly called Santa Lucia, and named the place City of Leon.

To pacify and colonize the new territory, Carabajal was allowed 100 soldiers and 60 married laborers, accompanied by their wives and children. It is safe to assume that a number of these early colonists were Spanish Jews, who, under the guise of Maranos, had hoped to escape persecution and find prosperity in the New World. In this expectation they were disappointed, for within a decade after their settlement a score of them were openly denounced and more or less severely punished for Judaizing. In 1590 there seems to have been an extensive colony of them in Mexico.

Don Luis de Carabajal brought with him to Mexico his brother-in-law, Don Francisco Rodríguez de Matos, and his sister, Doña Francisca Nuñez de Carabajal, with their children. In the year 1590, while in the midst of prosperity, and seemingly leading Christian lives, they were seized by the Inquisition. Doña Isabel was tortured till she implicated the whole of the Carabajal family, who, with the exception of Don Baltasar, were imprisoned. The latter succeeded in escaping to Tasco, and was condemned to death in his absence. Doña Francisca and her children, Isabel, Catalina, Leonor, and Luis, died at the stake, together with Manuel Diaz, Beatriz Enriquez, Diego Enriquez, and Manuel de Lucena.

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This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia article "Carabajal" by Cyrus Adler and George Alexander Kohut, a publication now in the public domain.