Hidden heritage exposes cancer risk

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - More and more Hispanics in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado are uncovering a secret Jewish ancestry, and a hidden health risk that sometimes comes with it.

"Nothing survives but a name, a blood line, and curiously enough a tendency to contract certain auto-immune diseases," said University of New Mexico adjunct professor Stanley Hordes - author of the book "To the End of the Earth: A History of the Crypto-Jews of New Mexico".

"It's absolutely fascinating to see the intersection between the historical and the cultural and the genetic and the genealogical," Hordes said.

Research shows Sephardic Jews held on to their religion in secret after leaving Spain and Portugal during the Spanish inquisition in the late 15th century, which eventually followed them into the New World.

Many Hispanics are starting to find out there is more to their history than they thought.

"Our family had been in the Pojoaque Valley forever and ever and ever," said Albuquerque resident Bernadette Martinez. "We thought that we were just the descendants of Spaniards that came into New Mexico."

Martinez confirmed she has Jewish blood, through DNA testing three years ago.

Father Bill Sanchez, a priest at the St. Edwin Catholic Parish in southwest Albuquerque, discovered his Jewish ancestry through DNA testing in 2001.

"That's when it was verified through science," Sanchez said. "I say my ancestry is Jewish."

Other Hispanics are learning of their Jewish ancestry through genetic testing, that is also revealing a serious health threat.

"We do bring up the fact that this is a mutation that is relatively common in Jewish ancestry," said Kelly Topf, a geneticist at the Swedish Medical Center in Denver.

The 185delAG mutation affects a gene designed to protect the body from cancer cells. The origin dates back to the Hebrew tribes of Palestine 2,000 years ago.

The defect makes women especially vulnerable to breast and ovarian cancer.

It also increases the risks of contracting male breast cancer, and colon and pancreatic cancer in both sexes.

"A small piece of that DNA is missing from that gene, and it renders the gene useless. It's not going to perform the way it's supposed to," Topf said.

Rosie Trujillo, a Washington resident whose family once settled near Taos, tested positive for the mutation in 2000.

"That confirmed that we really were Sephardic Jews," Trujillo said.

Trujillo has a long history of family members who have died of breast cancer.

Her daughter, who also had the mutation, died of ovarian cancer in 2006.

"We try to spread the word out," Trujillo said. "I try to educate my family members by giving them brochures and by advising them to please, get tested. Don't be afraid."

Some who have the mutation are taking extreme precautions.

"I was tested in May. I found out the results in June, and I had the double mastectomy and hysterectomy in November," Melissa Martin said.

Martin is seeing geneticist Kelly Topf at the Denver hospital.

"I have a cousin that she had a complete hysterectomy, had everything taken out, and had a bilateral mastectomy," Trujillo said. "She didn't want to take any chances whatsoever."

Trujillo calls the discovery of the genetic defect a "mixed blessing".

While mindful of the health risk, she is also embracing her Jewish heritage.

"I'm Christian, but I am also going to the messianic Jewish congregation," Trujillo said.

Father Bill Sanchez, who wears a Star of David around his neck while walking around his southwest Albuquerque parish, is embracing his heritage, too.

"Moses and Aaron, those are my ancestors. God was working with them and God is still working with us," Sanchez said. "It wasn't something that we were looking to verify. It just is."