Sephardic Ancestry Common Among Spaniards, Study Says

[Click graphic to enlarge]

By Nicholas Wade, The NY Times 

Spain and Portugal have a history of fervent Catholicism, but almost a third of the population now turns out to have a non-Christian genetic heritage. Some 20 percent of the present population of the Iberian peninsula has Sephardic Jewish ancestry, and 11 percent bear Moorish DNA signatures, a team of geneticists reports.

The genetic signatures reflect the forced conversions to Christianity in the 14th and 15th centuries after Christian armies wrested Spain back from Muslim control.

The new finding bears on two very different views of Spanish history: one holds that Spanish civilization is Catholic and all other influences are foreign, the other that Spain has been enriched by drawing from all three of its historical cultures, Catholic, Jewish and Muslim.

The genetic study, based on an analysis of Y chromosomes, was conducted by a team of biologists led by Mark A. Jobling of the University of Leicester in England and Francesc Calafell of the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona.

The biologists developed a Y chromosome signature for Sephardic men by studying Sephardic Jewish communities in places where Jews migrated after being expelled from Spain in 1492-1496. They also characterized the Y chromosomes of the Arab and Berber army that invaded Spain in 711 AD from data on people now living in Morocco and Western Sahara.

After a period of forbearance under the Arab Umayyad dynasty, Spain entered a long period of religious intolerance, with its Muslim Berber dynasties forcing both Christians and Jews to convert to Islam, and the victorious Christians then expelling Jews and Muslims or forcing both to convert. The new genetic study , reported online Thursday in the American Journal of Human Genetics, indicates there was a high level of conversion among Jews.
Jonathan S. Ray, a professor of Jewish studies at Georgetown University

, said that a high proportion of people with Sephardic ancestry was to be expected. “Jews formed a very large part of the urban population up until the great conversions,” he said.

The genetic analysis is “very compelling,” said Jane S. Gerber, an expert on Sephardic history at the City University of New York , and weighs against scholars who have argued there were very few Jewish conversions to Christianity.

Dr. Ray raised the question of what the DNA evidence might mean on a personal level. “If four generations on I have no knowledge of my genetic past, how does that affect my understanding of my own religious association?”

The issue is one that has confronted Dr. Calafell, an author of the study. His own Y chromosome is probably of Sephardic ancestry — the test is not definitive for individuals — and his surname is from a town in Catalonia; Jews undergoing conversion often took surnames from place names.

Jews first settled in Spain during the early years of the Roman empire. Sephardic Jews are so-called after the Hebrew word for Spain, Sepharad.

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Texas friendly?

[Photo: Chair in my uncle Jesús Castro's yard - Crystal City, TX - 2004]

From 1999 to 2005 I lived in Lockhart, Texas. You may ask — why would a lefty from San Francisco move to Bush Country? Well, my wife decided to go the University of Texas at Austin for graduate school.

Six and half years later we’re back in beautiful California and my wife Ann has her Ph.D. She is now a professor at the University of Redlands, teaching Art History. Mission accomplished.

My tenure in Texas left an indelible mark on my wife and I. In retrospect, uprooting myself at the rather mature age of 47 was quite naive. I was not ready for the culture shock. Coming from a liberal bastion like San Francisco and San Jose to live near Austin wasn’t too bad, but much of the rest of Texas wasn’t ready to assimilate this Chicano — or as I was often called — Yankee.

Texans for some reason have a stubborn disdain for Californians. Many from the Lone Star state enjoyed poking fun at the Golden State. I must have heard this comment a thousand times, “California has too many earthquakes and is going to fall in the ocean. Sounds like a good idea to me.”

That’s the obnoxious and often arrogant side of Texas, but there is a kinder and gentler side, the side where people would start a conversation and invite you over for a visit — some iced tea. Yes, they were Texas friendly.

Today I am back in California and readjusting to the cultural norms. People in Redlands, like folks in Los Angeles, Riverside and San Diego are quite wary of strangers and avert their eyes. Starting a casual conversation with a stranger is out of the question in much of the Golden State.

In the small town of Johnson City (population 900) where I worked and Lockhart (population 9,000) where I lived, I often shook hands, waved and smiled at strangers and friends on a regular basis. Sounds corny, but I liked it.

In rural Texas, drivers had a folksy way of waving at a stop sign. It was just a quick and friendly shake of the hand, often from an old pickup. Once in a while I find myself doing that in California — but nobody waves back in Los Angeles. I’ll be stopping that habit soon enough.

At the co-op where I worked, women wouldn’t hesitate to volunteer for parenting duties like baby-sitting or picking up the kids. There was a definite sense of community and a respect for family that you don't often see in modern America. I would wonder to my self — would Johnson City or Lockhart have been a good place to raise a family. My daughters are both in their late 20s — I guess it’s too late to sign them up for 4H.

It wasn’t uncommon for co-workers to tell me about their children or grandchild. Time for conversation seemed inexhaustible and acceptable. I would hear stories of life on the ranch. I learned about raising goats and cattle. Now that I am in California, I wonder if I could ever use this information. Life in rural Texas is very different from the suburbs.

Am I glad to be back in California? Yes, it’s great to be back home. The weather is fantastic, the cultural opportunities are amazing and my wife and I are closer to friends and family.

What am I going to miss about the Lone Star state? Well the smell of oak fired BBQs to start with. The town I lived in — Lockhart — is the BBQ capital of Texas. Most mornings I would wake up and sit quietly on the porch and enjoy the great smell of oak smokers, brisket and ribs. Great BBQ was just a five-minute stroll down a quiet street. A big plate of BBQ cost me only $4 in 2005. In Lockhart, shopping, the oldest library in the state and the post office were also nearby. Yes, small town life can be convenient.

I’ll also miss listening to folks in their southern drawl explaining to this Yankee about hunting, making venison sausage, and if Ann and I were going to the Czech or German dance. What I won’t miss is being called a crazy Californian — over and over again. Listening to arrogant Texans can be tedious after a while.

I learned a lot about myself in Texas. In the end, I will adapt, and meld back into the California mainstream. Of course, this is as long as I don’t fall into the Pacific Ocean with the rest of California like so many Texans believe.

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