Converso – Cascabel Lyrics

Converso

A converso (Spanish: [komˈbeɾso]; Portuguese: [kõˈvɛɾsu]; feminine form conversa), “convert”, (from Latin conversvs ‘converted, turned around’) was a Jew who converted to Catholicism in Spain or Portugal, particularly during the 14th and 15th centuries, or one of his or her descendants.
To safeguard the Old Christian population and make sure that the converso “New Christians” were true to their new faith, the Holy Office of the Inquisition was established in Spain in 1478. The Catholic monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella expelled the remaining openly practising Jews by the Alhambra decree of 1492, following the Christian Reconquista (reconquest) of Spain. However, even a significant proportion of these remaining practising Jews chose to join the already large con… more »