Yonah Toledano was a faithful Jew who lived in Catholic Spain during the time of the Spanish Inquisition. He had no will to become Christian and once the expulsion has begun he was all by himself against the Inquisition. Yonah challenged the authority of the Catholic Church by supporting Conversos, refusing to convert, and killing Christians which was the most important method for his survival because it saved him in life threatening moments and kept his secret of being a Jew.
During Yonah’s time working at the jail, he met “eleven New Christians charged with being secret Jews” (69). These Conversos were arrested for different crimes such as preparing meat according to the Jewish rite, buying that meat, owning pages of Jewish prayers and celebrating…show more content… During his life, Yonah was involved in multiple fights with other Christians. In all three fights, Yonah used the tactic of self-defense to protect himself from death. One example was the time when Yonah and Manuel Fierro were attacked by Angel Costa. Yonah was almost killed by Angel Costa -- who despised Jews and any non-Christians -- but he ended up killing him. Later in the book, Yonah got in a fight with Tapia in Count Vasca’s castle. Tapia, also a Christian, tried to kill Yonah but Yonah defended himself and killed Tapia. In addition to these two deaths of Christians caused by Yonah, there was also the case of Friar Bonestruca, an inquisitor who hated Jews and may have killed Yonah’s brother and father. Yonah hated Bonestruca and wanted to pay him back for his brother’s and father’s death. Twice in the book, Yonah seriously considered killing Bonestruca but he did not because he was worried that such an act would reveal his identity as a Jew. Killing other Christians was one of Yonah’s ways to resist the inquisition -- that was trying to kill all Jews -- and it was the most effective way for his survival because it saved his life and eliminated his enemies who knew of his secret life as a
