ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Renato Huarte Cuéllar is a philosopher, academic and choreographer based in Mexico City. He works across philosophy of education, philosophy of religion and Jewish studies, co-founded Limmud Mexico, and for nine years led the education programme of Mexico City's Jewish dance festival, Festival Aviv, the largest of its kind outside Israel.
Recorded live at Limmud Festival 2025, this conversation illuminates the Jewish world of Mexico. There are around forty thousand Jews in Mexico, almost all in Mexico City: in communities organised by ethnic origin and gathered not around the synagogue but around a vast sports and cultural centre. Renato calls it the bubble: a world so complete you could be born, schooled, married and buried inside it. The question that runs through the whole conversation is what that completeness costs, and who gets seen, let in, or read as Jewish at all.
Key Topics
- Conversos, the Inquisition, and Jews who are only now emerging
- Colourism, class and belonging: who gets read as Jewish
Your Guide
Judaizar: the verb used after the 1492 expulsion for conversos who kept Jewish practices, such as secretly lighting Shabbat candles.
Güero: a Mexican word today meaning "blond", carrying a wider sense tied to social and economic class, from an older root meaning "empty of colour".
Güerismo mexicano: term for being judged by the colour of your skin.
Judíos emergentes: the recognised name in Latin America for emerging Jewish communities, groups building their own practice from outside the established world.
Want to Learn More?
If this conversation connected with you, these episodes are close neighbours:
Unity through Diversity (Season 2, Episode 4): Dr Isaac Amon on Sephardi, Mizrahi and Ashkenazi heritage and the legal history of Jewish communities.
Turk Passing (Season 1, Episode 5): Phillip Arditti on Turkish Jewish life and exploring his identity through art and theatre
References and Resources
Adraba, Renato's dance project, with work on YouTube
Festival Aviv, Mexico City's Jewish dance festival.
Centro Deportivo Israelita, the sports and cultural centre at the heart of the community.
Guimel, the LGBTQ+ Jewish organisation in Mexico.
Dani Rotstein's ReEmerge Project, on Jewish life and returning Jewish stories in Latin America.
Show credits
Host / Producer: Eylan Ezekiel
Post-production: Communicating for Impact
Artwork: Emily Theodore
Music: Aleksafor utransndr Karabanov
Sound effects: Serge Quadrado
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