11. A Moluccan Crypto-Muslim before the Transpacific Inquisition (1623–1645)

Abstract

In 1623 and again in 1643, a Moluccan soldier by the name of Alexo de Castro became one of the few individuals to be shipped from Manila to Mexico to face trial by the Inquisition, which operated out of New Spain. In the trial documents, we learn of his life as a mestizo of Portuguese and Southeast Asian lineage who traveled from the Moluccas to Goa and then to Manila in the course of his career as a soldier. We also learn of this mestizo’s alleged adherence to the practice of Islam and hear the voices of the women who accused him of sexual assault. Ryan Dominic Crewe places the document in the context of institutional history and in that of the global mestizaje characteristic of Iberian maritime imperialism.