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Jews and Latinos--exploring common history and culture. (Review Essay).

Article Excerpt
The Scroll and the Cross is an addition to the relatively small library of works on Hispanic (Latino) Jewish literature. It is an eclectic collection of reading focusing on Spanish Jewish literature. The editor has collected 41 documents spanning from the 10th to the 20th centuries. Nineteen of the documents were written in Spain and 22 in Hispanic America. The book includes religious manifestos, philosophic statements, Jewish-Christian disputations, prayers, stories, poems, correspondence, and reports.

Editor Ilan Stavans explains that he organized The Scroll and the Cross "as a double-faceted mirror." (p. 2) What he means by this is that he is interested in exploring how Jews have reacted to living in Hispanic countries and how non-Jews in those same countries have reacted to the Jewish presence. The Scroll and the Cross is therefore not just a collection of Hispanic literature written by Jews but 'also includes a substantial selection of non-Jewish writers, including Gonzalo de Berceo, Francisco de Quevedo y Villaegas, Miguel de Unamuno, Federico Garcia Lorca, Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortazar, and Mario Vargas Llosa. This decision further broadens the scope of an already broad collection.

The editor stresses that the book "is not an anthology of the Sephardic tradition." (p. 2) Rather, it focuses on Sepharad, Spain. The direction of the collection is pretty predictable up until the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492. But after that date, it does not follow the Sephardim into exile in the Ottoman Empire, North Africa, various Arabic countries, and certain Western European cities. Instead, the anthology includes literally works from the Spanish-speaking New World. This is a rather surprising decision because it means that Eastern European Ashkenazic Jews write many of the selections. Some of them will even write partially or wholly in Yiddish rather than in Spanish.

The selections were written not only in Spanish but also in six other languages: Hebrew, Arabic, Latin, Ladino, Yiddish, and even English. All of the foreign language works were previously translated into English and are being reprinted here. Stavans explains that because of limited continental circulation, South American readers may have difficulty finding books published in neighboring countries. "Ironically, a reader in English today has far more Jewish-Latin American literary works at his disposal than does his or her counterparts south of the Rio Grande." (p. 27)

Stavans argues that "the largest challenge for scholars today is the articulation of a sensible, panoramic context through which to help non-Hispanics understand the dilemmas faced by Jews in the Americas." (p. 27) These challenges are very different' from those faced by American Jews. Latin American history and culture is very different from American history and culture, and this is reflected in literature written by, and about, Jews.

The documents are not broken down into sections, but it becomes clear...