Southwest Jewish History
Volume 2, Number 1, Fall 1993
Gone But Not Forgotten
By Melissa Amado
As a child I was captivated by family stories
concerning early
Tucson history, and my interests in the Amado
family history have
continued to grow. I have interviewed many of my older relatives
and, according to a family story, the Amado
family of Southern
Arizona can be traced to four brothers who left Spain sometime
during the 1790s to serve as presidio soldiers. Three of these
brothers settled in the Tucson and Sonora areas. The other brother
is said to have settled in California.
During the 1850s my great-great-grandfather, Manuel Amado, was
involved in freighting cattle and goods from Mexico to California.
Manuel did very well with his freighting business and was able to
diversify his business interests to include ranches, a dairy farm
and a butcher shop. In the 1880s the U.S. government established
the San Xavier Indian Reservation and confiscated the dairy farm
and family home belonging to Manuel and his wife, Ismael Ferrer de
Amado. Manuel and
Ismael moved their ranching interests further
south and established Amadoville, Arizona. In 1920 Demetrio, their
son and my great-grandfather, was the postmaster and formally
changed the name of the town to Amado.
Among Manuel's and Ismael's Tucson landholdings, a
house was
built on the Amado compound in 1880
(in the present day area of
Fifteenth Street and Stone Avenue). I now have in my possession
the original quit-claim deed for the purchase of lots 1, 2, 3, 4
and 5 on Block 15 of the Grand View Addition to the City of Tucson,
Pima County, Territory of Arizona. This property was purchased for
the sum of fifty dollars from Albert and Bettina Steinfeld by
Vicente Ferrer, father of Ismael Amado.
This purchase was
incorporated with the Amado
property on Block 15, which later was
listed in the Tucson City Directories as the "Amado Block." The
original Amado house is now used as
the headquarters for the Tucson
Symphony Society on Stone Avenue. In 1905 my great-great
grandmother, Ismael had a two-story Victorian home built on
Fifteenth Street. She also had a private prayer room built on a
raised landing outside of the house on the westside of the
structure. The entrance to this prayer room could be reached only
through the inside of the house. The family sold the property in
the 1940s and it was purchased by the Tucson Symphony Women's
Association during the 1970s. This organization has successfully
restored the home to its old glory and the house is protected by
the U.S. National Historic Register. However, the prayer room no
longer remains but the landing is still present.
In 1989 I was in Los Angeles and decided to reach any
Amados
listed in the telephone directory as an attempt to find the lost
California branch. I received replies from two individuals, one of
whom was definitely related to me. The other was from Richard
Amado, who started his
letter with "I don't think I can help very
much...." and ended his letter with "I am a Sephardic Jew." His
letter raised many questions on the religious origins of the
Spanish Amados. I am greatly indebted to Richard Amado for
responding to my inquiry since he provided me with insights to the
other side of the Amado family.
In May of 1989 I had a meeting with Professor Abraham
Chanin and
started asking him questions, and he responded by offering a
variety of reading materials dealing with Sephardim. Through
cross-referencing materials I have found information on Amados in
Spain where they were known as a converso family. Currently I am
pursuing leads on Amados throughout the United States and trying to
find any links to my Spanish ancestors.
In the literature dealing with conversos, the family
name Lopez
is frequently cited as being tried or wanted by the Spanish
Inquisition. I began to wonder about my mother's family origins,
the Lopezes. On several occasions I heard references to the family
being Jewish but no explanations were given. In 1991 one of my
maternal great-aunt's decided I should know about the family. She
explained to me that the family has always known about being
Jewish. Yet she and her siblings were baptized as Catholics in a
small Arizona town. My great-aunt is the only practicing Catholic
among her siblings. As a child she went on to make her first holy
communion in Los Angeles. However, none of the family attended the
service. In discussions with one of my cousins he has explained to
me that the family frequently intermarried among cousins and
maintained knowledge of a Jewish identity. Some of the family
households would light candles on Friday evenings. To this day,
many members within the family continue to abstain from consuming
pork. The present generation of the Lopez family are members of
various Christian religions, but some have continued to carry on
the family's secret traditions.
In searching for information on my own family, I have
broaden my
interests to include other Hispanics. I use the term Hispanic to
include individuals with Mexican, Mexican American, Cuban American,
Puerto Rican and Spanish/British ancestries since I have
interviewed people from these various ethnic nationalities. I approach
this subject with great sensitivity since some members
within my own family as well as other families have refused to
share with me any information on a Jewish past. Yet, there have
been many others who are very receptive to searching for their
family origins. My graduate work at the University of Arizona has
been focused upon interviewing and tracing converso descendants. The
legacies of the conversos will never be forgotten.
Melissa Amado holds a Bachelor of Arts degree and
a Master of
Arts degree from the University of Arizona. She is completing her
coursework on a second Master of Arts degree at the University of
Arizona. She is an adjunct faculty member at Pima Community
College and continues her research interests at the Bloom Southwest
Jewish Archives.
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