Two by Two: Sandoval & Toro

Crypto-Jewry in New Mexico: Gaon Books and Collected Books Bookstore and Coffeehouse are pleased to announce a two-author book-reading and -signing joint event:

Isabelle Medina Sandoval & Sandra K Toro

Tuesday June 18 ~ 6:00 pm ~ Tonight!

Collected Works Bookstore & Coffeehouse

202 Galisteo Street ~ Santa Fe NM 87501

Dr. Isabelle Medina Sandoval is a published poet, a genealogy researcher, and the Bilingual Director for the Santa Fe Public Schools.  She has won numerous short story and poetry contests. She has been recognized by Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who of American Women among other organizations. Her publications include Guardians of Hidden Traditions and Hidden Shabbat, both finalists for Best Book Awards, New Mexico Book Awards.

Dr. Sandoval’s Hidden Shabbat: The Secret Lives of Crypto-Jews is a “beautiful piece of literature and important in preserving our New Mexico history and culture. I recommend it for both youth and adults who want to understand New Mexico” - Prof. John B. Mondragon, University of New Mexico

Sandra K. Toro is an award-winning, best selling author who teaches creative writing at the University of New Mexico. She writes about Jewish life and history in her books By Fire Possessed, Doña Gracia Nasi and Princes, Popes and Pirates, the latter about the life of Joseph Nasi.

Toro is an officer of the Southwest Writers Association and is an active speaker on issues of writing and the representation of writers.

Ms. Toro’s latest novel is Secrets Behind Adobe Walls. Toro teaches history as she narrates the lives of the most powerful Jewish family of the sixteenth century, the Mendes, who used their personal wealth to save thousands of Jewish families from the Inquisition.

Professor Roger L. Martinez (University of Colorado) says “Through her exquisite prose, Sandra K. Toro recreates the lives of New Mexico's crypto-Jews … and rekindles our memory of that dramatic era."