When four genetic counselors and inherited cancers specialists in San Luis Valley, CO, got together and discussed the cancer cases they had documented in 2001, they found out that the Hispanic women they were in communication with--all of which were born and raised Catholic--were suffering from rare and aggressive forms of breast and ovarian cancers that have mostly affected generations of Jewish women for over 2,000 years.
This discovery connected the dots for these documented patients, revealing that their lineage expands much beyond their Catholic upbringings to the Jewish roots of their ancestors, roots that were upheaved when the Spanish Inquisition expelled their ancestors from Spain unless they converted to Catholicism back in 1492 A.D.
With how polarized our society has become, it is easy to toss away our beautiful similarities in order to keep our perceived differences within the limelight. What we must remember when engaging with someone that may seem like a complete stranger, however, is that we may be much more related than what we think, and as always, history has been our greatest teacher.
Read more about this fascinating story here:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-secret-jews-of-san-luis-valley-11765512/
