At first, our conversation revealed relatively little by way of crypto-Jewish practices, but as we were discussing prayers related to death and mourning, I showed her a copy of prayers recorded from anusim in Belmonte, Portugal. Dorvina looked astonished and said these prayers were oral, and are not supposed to be published. In a moment, she was marking which of the prayers were familiar and which were not. She explained that the prayers were kept hidden from the priest and that she never heard nor saw any prayers of this nature in the convent. Dorvina further indicated that there was a special way to say these prayers, and chanted some into my tape-recorder, with her eyes closed, making the same gestures and intonation as the women from Belmonte, Portugal.
Some small differences do exist.
Dorvina does not recall the name Adonai in her family prayers, and Jesus' name is also absent. It is the Protestants who mention Jesus' name indiscriminately, she said. Dorvina did her own research. She collected Portuguese and Spanish prayer books and searched them for prayers that resemble those that were said in the home, and for which she did not know of parallels among the formal prayers she knew. After thousands of pages, she came back saying she found none, but she is still looking.