Conversos

This conversion set up a viable opposition to the existing order and threatened the status quo, and so in some of the villages the Elders, known as Cargos, took the drastic step of expelling the conversos from the villages. ❋ Unknown (2004)

She explained that her family (some 500 years ago!) were "conversos" -- Jews who chose to convert to Christianity rather than face expulsion. ❋ Unknown (2004)

By the 1540s the Inquisition in Spain had turned its attention from the so-called conversos—Jews who converted to Christianity—to Christians who had fallen under the influence of Luther, Erasmus, and other reformers. ❋ Russell Jacoby (2011)

In the late 15th century, Queen Isabella of Castile and her husband, King Ferdinand of Aragon, created and received papal approval for a separate inquisition in each of their kingdoms to eliminate Jewish converts to Christianity known as conversos rumored still to practice Judaism. ❋ Geoffrey Parker (2012)

New Christians, also called conversos, insisted their faith was identical to that of other Christians. ❋ Unknown (2001)

Hebrew antecedents can be found in many Spanish names still common in South Texas, especially considering that some of the earliest families who came to South Texas in 1749 with José de Escandón were themselves "cristianos nuevos" (New Christians), also called conversos ❋ Unknown (2009)

Part of that may be due to some insecurity among the upper classes and Criollos over their own ancestry -- which included a disproportionate number of "conversos". ❋ Unknown (2010)