Sephardic Jewish Ancestry of Latin Americans More Widespread Than Previously Thought

As Jews were forced to either convert to Catholicism or face death during the Spanish Inquisition, many became conversos and as Spain began its voyages across the oceans and into territories unknown to them, Jewish people also made their way to the colonies.

The stories have always persisted—of people across Latin America who didn’t eat pork, of candles lit on Friday nights, of mirrors covered for mourning.

A new study examining the DNA of thousands of Latin Americans reveals the extent of their likely Sephardic Jewish ancestry, more widespread than previously thought and more pronounced than in people in Spain and Portugal today.

It appears that Latin Americans are a genetically-diverse people with a mix of different ancestries in their DNA. One of those is Sephardic Jewish blood. And there seems to be more of them than initially thought.

(Image credit: Wikimedia Commons)