Editing Alhambra Decree (section)

===Conversions===
A majority of Spain's Jewish population had converted to Christianity during the waves of religious persecutions prior to the Decree—a total of 200,000 converts according to Joseph Pérez.<ref name=":0" /> The main objective of the expulsion of practicing Jews was ensuring the sincerity of the conversions of such a large convert population. Of the 100,000 Jews that remained true to their faith by 1492, an additional number chose to convert and join the converso community rather than face expulsion. Recent conversos were subject to additional suspicion by the Inquisition, which had been established to persecute religious heretics, but in Spain and Portugal was focused on finding crypto-Jews. Although Judaism was not considered a heresy, professing Christianity while engaging in Jewish practices was heretical. Additionally, ''[[Limpieza de sangre]]'' statutes instituted legal discrimination against converso descendants, barring them from certain positions and forbidding them from emigrating to the Americas. For years, families with urban origins who had extensive trade connections, and people who were learned and multilingual were suspected of having Jewish ancestry.<ref name=":1" /> According to the prejudice of the time, a person with Jewish blood was untrustworthy and inferior.<ref name=":1" /> Such measures slowly faded away as converso identity was forgotten and this community merged into Spain's dominant [[Catholic culture]]. This process lasted until the eighteenth century, with a few exceptions, most notably the [[Chuetas]] of the island of [[Majorca]], where discrimination lasted into early 20th Century.

A [[Y chromosome]] [[DNA testing|DNA test]] conducted by the [[University of Leicester]] and the [[Pompeu Fabra University]] has indicated an average of nearly 20% for Spaniards having some direct patrilineal descent from populations from the Near East which colonized the region either in historical times, such as [[Jews]] and [[Phoenicians]], or during earlier prehistoric [[Neolithic]] migrations. Between the 90,000 Jews who converted under the Visigoth persecutions, and the 100,000+ Jews who converted in the years leading up to expulsion, it is likely that many of these people have Jewish ancestry. Genetic studies have explored local beliefs in the American South West that Spanish Americans are the descendants of conversos.<ref name="FloresMaca-Meyer2004">{{cite journal |last1=Flores |first1=Carlos |last2=Maca-Meyer |first2=Nicole |last3=González |first3=Ana M |last4=Oefner |first4=Peter J |last5=Shen |first5=Peidong |last6=Pérez |first6=Jose A |last7=Rojas |first7=Antonio |last8=Larruga |first8=Jose M |last9=Underhill |first9=Peter A |title=Reduced genetic structure of the Iberian peninsula revealed by Y-chromosome analysis: implications for population demography |journal=European Journal of Human Genetics |volume=12 |issue=10 |year=2004 |pages=855–863 |issn=1018-4813 |doi=10.1038/sj.ejhg.5201225 |pmid=15280900|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |pmid=12627534 | doi=10.1002/ajpa.10168 | volume=120 | issue=4 | title=Mitochondrial DNA affinities at the Atlantic fringe of Europe |date=April 2003 | journal=Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. | pages=391–404 | last1 = González | first1 = AM | last2 = Brehm | first2 = A | last3 = Pérez | first3 = JA | last4 = Maca-Meyer | first4 = N | last5 = Flores | first5 = C | last6 = Cabrera | first6 = VM}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Di Giacomo|first1=F.|last2=Luca|first2=F.|last3=Popa|first3=L. O.|last4=Akar|first4=N.|last5=Anagnou|first5=N.|last6=Banyko|first6=J.|last7=Brdicka|first7=R.|last8=Barbujani|first8=G.|last9=Papola|first9=F.|date=October 2004|title=Y chromosomal haplogroup J as a signature of the post-neolithic colonization of Europe|journal=Human Genetics|volume=115|issue=5|pages=357–371|doi=10.1007/s00439-004-1168-9|issn=0340-6717|pmid=15322918|s2cid=18482536}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last2=Knight|first2=Alec|last3=Underhill|first3=Peter A.|last4=Neulander|first4=Judith S.|last5=Disotell|first5=Todd R.|last6=Mountain|first6=Joanna L.|year=2006|title=Toward resolution of the debate regarding purported crypto-Jews in a Spanish-American population: Evidence from the Y chromosome|journal=Annals of Human Biology|publisher=Taylor and Francis|volume=33|issue=1|pages=100–111|doi=10.1080/03014460500475870|pmid=16500815|last1=Sutton|first1=Wesley K.|s2cid=26716816}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Identifying Genetic Traces of Historical Expansions: Phoenician Footprints in the Mediterranean <!--|publisher=Cell.com--> |date=17 November 2008 |journal=The American Journal of Human Genetics |publisher=Elsevier Inc. |doi=10.1016/j.ajhg.2008.10.012 |volume=83 |issue=5 |pages=633–642 |pmid=18976729 |pmc=2668035 | last1 = Zalloua | first1 = PA | last2 = Platt | first2 = DE | last3 = El Sibai | first3 = M |display-authors=et al}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |url= |title=The Genetic Legacy of Religious Diversity and Intolerance: Paternal Lineages of Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula |quote=Despite alternative possible sources for lineages ascribed a Sephardic Jewish origin |date=12 December 2006 |doi=10.1016/j.ajhg.2008.11.007 |volume=83 |issue=6 |journal=The American Journal of Human Genetics |pages=725–736 |pmid=19061982 |pmc=2668061 | last1 = Adams | first1 = SM | last2 = Bosch | first2 = E | last3 = Balaresque | first3 = PL |display-authors=et al}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.publico.es/ciencias/180536/tres/culturas/adn |title=Tres culturas en el ADN |last=Yanes |first=Javier |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120721214231/http://www.publico.es/ciencias/180536/tres-culturas-en-el-adn |archive-date=21 July 2012 |access-date=9 September 2016 |language=es |trans-title=Three cultures in DNA |quote=[English translation] The Sephardi result may be overestimated, since there is much diversity in those genes and maybe absorbed other genes from the Middle East. Puts Calafell in doubt the validity of ancestry tests? They can be good for the Americans, we already know from where we come from. |url-status=dead  }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/39056/title/Spanish_Inquisition_couldn%E2%80%99t_quash_Moorish,_Jewish_genes |title=Spanish Inquisition couldn't quash Moorish, Jewish genes |last=Hesman Saey |first=Tina |date=4 December 2008 |access-date=9 September 2016 |quote=We think it might be an over estimate. The genetic makeup of Sephardic Jews is probably common to other Middle Eastern populations, such as the Phoenicians, that also settled the Iberian Peninsula," Calafell says: "In our study, that would have all fallen under the Jewish label. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629172709/http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/39056/title/Spanish_Inquisition_couldn%E2%80%99t_quash_Moorish,_Jewish_genes |archive-date=29 June 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2008/12/04/ciencia/1228409780.html |title=Uno de cada tres españoles tiene marcadores genéticos de Oriente Medio o el Magreb |last=Cáceres |first=Pedro |date=10 December 2008 |access-date=9 September 2016 |language=es |trans-title=One in three Spaniards have genetic markers for Middle East and the Maghreb |quote=[English translation] Dr. Calafell clarifies that ... the genetic markers used to distinguish the population with Sephardi ancestry may produce distortions. The 25% of Spaniards that are identified as having Sephardi ancestry in the study could have inherited that same marker from older movements like the Phoenicians, or even the first Neolithic settlers thousands of years ago.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16200-spanish-inquisition-left-genetic-legacy-in-iberia.html |title=Spanish Inquisition left genetic legacy in Iberia |last=Callaway |first=Ewen |publisher=New Scientist |date=4 December 2008}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-secret-jews-of-san-luis-valley-11765512/|title=The 'Secret Jews' of San Luis Valley|last=Wheelwright|first=Jeff|work=Smithsonian|access-date=27 June 2017|language=en}}</ref>{{overcite|date=October 2023}}