Drawing by Léon Benett
The document that you are about to read is a contribution to the history of those Moroccan Jews who at the end of the 19th century, left to seek fortune in Amazonia. These are the Memoires of our ancestor Abraham Pinto who tells us the story of his and his brother Moyses’ adventures in those far away countries. They came to our family fortuitously, 50 years after they were written, through Stella Lasry who gave them to her daughter-in-law Vera Pinto-Lasry, grand-niece of the writer. Vera transmitted them to the descendants of the writer’s brother, Samuel Pinto, who participated himself in this adventure at a later date.
The memoirs were written in Spanish. We thought important to translate them into French so that our children who were not fluent in Spanish could easily read them. They were then published on a website so that they would be accessible to many of the following generations.
A few years later, this website provided a space for many of the descendants of the writer as well as descendants of his brothers and sisters, to find each other. At the initiative of Jimmy Pinto, many of these descendants met in Toledo, Spain, near the little town of Pinto, probably the town of origin of the Pinto family. Jimmy and Vera came up with the idea of having these Memoires translated into English and Hebrew. These translations as well as a historical introduction, and a complete genealogical tree have all been done by members of the Pinto Family. We would like to give them all our thanks.
Annie Dray-Stauffer and Donna Pinto-Dray