Interview with Pedro Carmona Estanga, a Venezuelan who became a Spanish citizen due to his Sephardic origins

Having spent the last 21 years of his life in Colombia dedicated to teaching, Venezuelan Pedro Carmona Estanga took advantage of Law 2019/12 in 2015 to obtain Spanish nationality due to his Sephardic origins and settled in Madrid, where he granted us this interview. Carmona has been a teacher, a business leader in his country and an economist.

by Ricardo Angoso

Based on an important study of his genealogical roots, Pedro Carmona and his family decided years ago to take advantage of Law 12/2015, of June 24, 2015, regarding the granting of Spanish nationality to Sephardic Jews from Spain. Carmona used this Law to obtain Spanish nationality and to achieve this he provided copious and accredited documentation to achieve his goal. In this interview, he tells us about the process and the path taken in it, along with other issues.

The law that Carmona had resorted to expired in September 2019 and had its origins in the Decree of the dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera, dated December 20, 1924, which allowed some Sephardim to obtain Spanish nationality in the XNUMXs and was used by some Spanish diplomats to save hundreds of Jews during the Holocaust, who, carrying Spanish passports, were able to escape the Nazi hell that their countries of birth had become.

Ricardo Angoso: I would like to know if you have done any research into your Sephardic roots in the past and if you have any information about your family origins.

Pedro carmona: I knew that through the Álvarez family branch, we could have some Sephardic origins and with the valuable help of my sisters, who at that time lived in Venezuela, and through that link, we began to investigate our family roots, and their connections with a Spanish Sephardic branch. Then we hired a Venezuelan genealogist, Marco Ghersi, whom we knew, and so this process began. I have a deep admiration and respect for the study that this expert did, which goes back in a fully documented way to the 14th century, and thus he traced an entire history and a chronology of our family's links with the Sephardic world. It is a great work, the fruit of months of study and dedication, which I can only define as extraordinary. Later, the Israeli Association of Venezuela validated and approved all this work and then, in a long process, we also received approval for said work from the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain, which was one of the most difficult steps to take in this long journey to nationality. I sincerely believe that we presented a great job, thanks to this genealogist, and it was positively valued by the official Spanish institutions that had to grant the nationality and so we successfully completed this process. At first, when I was in Colombia, I had doubts about submitting the application, but with this extraordinary work already in hand, I decided to accompany my sisters in this initiative, thanks to which the final result was successful.

RA: Had you previously had any relationship with the local Jewish community in Venezuela?

PCE : I knew, of course, that there were organized Jewish communities, both in Venezuela and in Colombia, where I lived for decades, but I had no special relationship with these communities, which are well organized in Venezuela. Nor did I have a special relationship with the Sephardic world, which I now know better and continue to research and study. Now, for example, I know that many Sephardim arrived in Venezuela through Curaçao, and from there they went, among others, to the city of Coro, Falcón State, one of the first cities founded in Venezuela in the 1939th century, where there is still an old museum, testimony to the Sephardic presence in the city. Obviously, the origin of these communities has to do with the famous edict of expulsion of all Jews from Spain issued by the Catholic Monarchs, and we have news that many Sephardic families arrived in Venezuela and were widely welcomed. It should be noted that, at the beginning of the Second World War in 251, under the presidency of General Eleazar López Contreras, Venezuela was the only country in the region or among the English colonies in the Caribbean that authorized the docking of two ships from Germany with XNUMX Jews fleeing totalitarianism and Nazi genocide. They were the ships Caribia and Königstein, which, had they not docked in Puerto Cabello, would have had to return to Germany, with the atrocious fate that awaited them. The Jews do not forget this noble gesture.

RA: Have these Sephardim from Venezuela retained some traits of their identity and do they speak Ladino or Judeo-Spanish?

No, they do not speak Ladino, nor have I met anyone who does. But some have kept their Sephardic identity and in Venezuela we even have a museum of Sephardic history. The Sephardic language, Ladino, as has happened in other parts of the world, has been lost and almost no one speaks it anymore. In addition, the Israelite Association of Venezuela has always preserved within itself the two traditional branches of Jewish culture, Ashkenazi and Sephardic, living side by side in the same community. The Jewish community has a Sephardic Studies Center in Caracas, affiliated with the Israelite Association of Venezuela. There is also an Association of Friends of Sephardic Culture and a Sephardic Museum in Caracas. It is important to remember that the Sephardic presence in Venezuela began between the 1939th and XNUMXth centuries, although it was sporadic. After independence and the repeal of the Inquisition, numerous Sephardic Jews arrived from the island of Curaçao, mainly of Moroccan origin, to the city of Coro, and from there they spread throughout Venezuela, mainly dedicated to commercial activities. In XNUMX, the first synagogue was founded in Caracas.

NOW IN MADRID

RA: And here, now settled in Madrid, have you held any meetings or seen anyone from the Sephardic Jewish communities?

PCE: Not yet, but at some point I will, as I have the strongest desire to do so. Furthermore, although all this has been a late discovery, it has changed my life to a certain extent and I feel very proud and satisfied to be Spanish thanks to having recovered the history of my Sephardic ancestors, which has allowed me to have Spanish nationality. I have begun a new stage of my life in Spain that fills me with energy and satisfaction. Although I am already 83 years old, I maintain a great enthusiasm for this new stage of my life and discover new things every day, thanks to the rich intellectual and cultural activity that Spain offers, and everything that has happened to me in recent months has been a great and enriching revelation.

RA: Apart from her sisters, who have also claimed their right to obtain Spanish nationality due to their Sephardic origins, she has met more Venezuelans who have done so.

PCE: Yes, of course, there have been many Venezuelans and also Colombians who have taken advantage of this Law 12/2015. I remember that when the ceremony of swearing in as a Spanish citizen took place at the Consulate of the Kingdom of Spain in Bogotá, there were a large number of Colombians who swore along with me at that ceremony. We must not forget that in the department of Antioquia, in Colombia, there were a large number of Sephardim who settled there and many of their descendants have taken advantage of this Law to obtain Spanish nationality.

RA: I don't know if you knew that this Law had its antecedents in a decree by the dictator Primo de Rivera that already included this right of former Sephardim to obtain Spanish nationality and which many Spanish diplomats resorted to in order to save Jews during the Holocaust. Does this Law have anything to do with the Decree of 1924?

P.CE.: Yes, there is a certain basis in the Law with that Decree, but let's say that it has been updated and adapted to the new times. It coincides in the sense that it is a reparation to the Jews expelled by the Catholic Monarchs, by granting them Spanish citizenship, and I could add that it is a generous, noble and very well founded and developed Law.