That may be a legitimate reason for what was done, but we have two Free Republic Spanish Inquisition deniers saying it didn’t happen, when my own extended family is now being offered Spanish citizenship for being force expelled.
Of course, the family is much bigger now, after centuries in exile.
“That may be a legitimate reason for what was done, but we have two Free Republic Spanish Inquisition deniers saying it didn’t happen, when my own extended family is now being offered Spanish citizenship for being force expelled.”
Who exactly is denying the existence of the Spanish Inquisition?
The actual records of the inquisition exist, most scholars regard the history of the inquisition to be a black legend started by protestant propagandists and political leaders in Europe who used it as a bludgeon against Spain.
Spain never forced Jews to the New World. And the Inquisition did not force conversions to Catholicism.
First, deportations to the new world is simply absurd because of the dangers transporting populations across the Atlantic represented.
How would they have done so? Think about that for a moment.
When the Jews were deported they were sent to other countries in Europe.
Second, The stories about the inquisition are highly propagandized the enemies of Spain and of the Catholic Church. The actual records and testimony doesn’t support the claim that there was a “program or effort to force conversions to Catholicism.”
New Mexicans, and those with SW US Mexico heritage are finding through DNA that many of them have both Jewish and Native American heritage. As a student of that genealogy I have seen many talk about getting their Spanish citizenship and also discovering the Jewish heritage they never knew.
My own mother was from New Mexico and we thought she was completely Hispanic. Spanish. It’s a big source of pride in New Mexico to be Spanish and never to have intermarried with the Indians and to have white skin.
It turns out that it was only about half Spanish on her part and 35% Native American of some kind. And about 6% Jewish in the mix.