A lot of Spanish Jews ended up in the New World (since the Old World wasn’t too hospitable for them). Many of the first settlers in Columbia were of Jewish descent; and as many as 25% of the first Spanish settlers in Mexico City (once it got rebuilt) were of Jewish descent.
If you were of Jewish descent (even if you were a practicing Catholic), and Spanish, there were not a lot of places to go; and the New World looked pretty good.
I have a friend who converted to Judaism after her family had been Catholic for generations and hundreds of years.
They traced her lineage and she was able to convert in some short hand method instead of doing the whole Shiksa to JAP thing.
She tells the Joke:
“When I was Catholic I had fake jewelry and real orgasms.
Now I have fake orgasms and real jewelry”.
Who knew?(shrugs shoulders, makes neck disappear)