No, the Obama nominee for Interior Secretary, Colorado Senator Kenneth Lee Salazar, is not a Jew.Salazar is Roman Catholic. He was born in Colorado to parents of Mexican descent. Salazar attended St. Francis Seminary and Centauri High School in Conejos County. He graduated in 1973.
Salazar is known for his outspoken defense of Catholicism.
Just because he is of Mexican ancestry, does not mean he cannot be of Jewish (Sephardic) ancestry. Many many many modern-day Catholics are of Jewish ancestry. The Spanish and later Mexican inquisition was particularly ruthless, which resulted in further "Conversos." Also, some people believe that those who settled in the San Luis Valley settled there to flee from the persecution of the Church and practiced a more syncretic form of Catholicism with Jewish traits (like bris parties). If you go to the most colonial parts of Mexico, you will find many people with features like those of Mr. Salazar. I believe the last name is of Basque origin, but this doesn't mean that his whole ancestry is exclusively Basque either. Some "New Mexicanists" claim that the Jewish theory is a "Black Legend" and state emphatically that pork is consumed by these people. I would too if that secured my survival. The better question is "why is there such a prevalence of cases of thalassemia in the region?" Genetics could answer the questions upon which strategically biased history has exacted an erasure and a rupture in a historical narrative.
ReplyDeleteYou are so correct. There are Catholic Jews, Chinese Jews, Hindu Jews, Black Jews, etc. There are in all aspects of humanity. The ignorance of people believing that Jews only refers to the Jewish of that religion is absurd. There are atheist Jews as well.
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