Editing Hispanic (section)

==== Judaism ====
There are also Spanish-speaking [[Jews]], most of whom are the descendants of [[Ashkenazi Jews]] who migrated from Europe (German Jews, Russian Jews, Polish Jews, etc.) to Hispanic America, particularly [[Argentina]], [[Uruguay]], [[Peru]], and [[Cuba]] (Argentina is host to the third-largest Jewish population in the Western Hemisphere, after the United States and Canada)<ref>{{cite web |url=http://jppi.org.il/uploads/JPPI_2014-2015_Annual_Assessment-English.pdf |title=Annual Assessment: The Situation and Dynamics of the Jewish People |year=2015 |page=18 |work=The Jewish People Policy Planning Institute |access-date=19 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151224004229/http://jppi.org.il/uploads/JPPI_2014-2015_Annual_Assessment-English.pdf |archive-date=24 December 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ujc.org/section.html?id=29 |title=Global Jewish Populations |work=United Jewish Federations |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080531003148/http://www.ujc.org/section.html?id=29 |archive-date=2008-05-31 }}</ref> in the 19th century and following World War II. Many Spanish-speaking Jews also originate from the small communities of reconverted descendants of [[anusim]]—those whose Spanish [[Sephardi Jews|Sephardi Jewish]] ancestors long ago hid their Jewish ancestry and beliefs in fear of persecution by the [[Spanish Inquisition]] in the [[Iberian Peninsula]] and Ibero-America. The Spanish Inquisition led to many forced conversions of Spanish Jews.

Genetic studies on the (male) [[Y chromosome|Y-chromosome]] conducted by the [[University of Leeds]] in 2008 appear to support the idea that the number of forced conversions have been previously underestimated significantly. They found that twenty percent of Spanish males have Y-chromosomes associated with Sephardic Jewish ancestry.<ref>{{cite news |first=Nicholas |last=Wade |title=Gene Test Shows Spain's Jewish and Muslim Mix |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=5 December 2008 |page=A12 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/05/science/05genes.html |url-access=subscription }}</ref> This may imply that there were more forced conversions than was previously thought.

There are also thought to be many Catholic-professing descendants of [[marrano]]s and Spanish-speaking [[Crypto-Judaism|crypto-Jews]] in the [[Southwestern United States]] and scattered through Hispanic America. Additionally, there are Sephardic Jews who are descendants of those Jews who fled Spain to Turkey, [[Syria]], and North Africa, some of whom have now migrated to Hispanic America, holding on to some Spanish/Sephardic customs, such as the [[Judaeo-Spanish|Ladino]] language, which mixes Spanish, Hebrew, Arabic and others, though written with Hebrew and Latin characters.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Ladino |title=Ladino |work=Online Etymology Dictionary |access-date=19 January 2016}}</ref> [[Slavery|Ladinos]] were also African slaves captive in Spain held prior to the colonial period in the Americas. (See also [[History of the Jews in Latin America|History of the Jews in Hispanic America]] and [[List of Latin American Jews|List of Hispanic American Jews]].)