Jews, Latinos Uncovering Their Heritage - Los Angeles Times

“Five hundred years ago, when it was still illegal for them to sail to the New World, hundreds, maybe thousands, of Sephardic Jews from Spain secretly found ways across the Atlantic.

Many were escaping the Inquisition, which eventually spread to the colony’s capital, Mexico City.

In the late 1500s, facing the threat of arrest and death, some Jews in Mexico journeyed to the colony’s northern frontier, eventually settling in what is now New Mexico. They were Jews in secret, or crypto-Jews. For generations, their Mexican American descendants have practiced Catholicism but retained customs suggestive of a Jewish past, such as observing the Sabbath….”

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