Sounds like an urban legend.
I am only related what I was told but it does seem to be an explanation for being the only country with this fondess for this type of ham which is fairly primitive in its curing method.
Festive meals in every country are usually have their roots in Medieval times, even the American festive meal is from the birth of your nation.
In Spain it is grelos (turnip tops), boiled potatoes and all sorts of pig meat including the fat, really medieval peasants meal .
It’s part urban legend. Eating pork was a sign that you weren’t a Muslim, but they didn’t hang it that way to make a statement. It’s hung that way simply because that’s how you keep it. This is air-dried ham, like country ham in the US South.
It keeps for a really long time, btw, and people keep the leg on their kitchen counters, covered with a dish towel, and slice the ham off in thin slices as they need it.
An urban legend with legs.
“Spain’s love affair with ham dates to the Inquisition, when people ate it to prove they weren’t Jewish or Muslim. Centuries later, ham remains a staple in Spanish cuisine and is an essential part of the tapas experience.”
(June 12, 2009 article: http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/fea/travel/other/stories/DN-madridtapas_0614tra.ART.State.Edition1.197afab.html )
Okay, so pork was NOT a staple before 1478 or so? That’s what I’m supposed to believe? Yeah, sure.
Besides, by long standing tradition, converted Jews were not expected to eat pork if they claimed they could not “physically tolerate it”. So said the law code of Erwig, promulgated in 680. (Norman Roth Jews, Visigoths, and Muslims in medieval Spain: cooperation and conflict, 29).