On February 7, 1569, King Phillip II of Spain granted authorization by royal decree for the Spanish Inquisition to be carried out in Perú. Several thousand “Crypto-Jewish” families had immigrated to the Americas since the days of the Edict of Alhambra in 1492, which saw the expulsion of most of Spain’s Jewish population that refused to convert to Catholicism. It is estimated that some 200,000 Jews chose to remain in Spain and Portugal, claiming to profess Catholicism in public but continuing to practice Judaism in secret. Over the generations that followed, many Crypto-Jewish families sought refuge in the Americas, seeking freedoms of thought and religion but above all, to survive. However, the Catholic Church was relentless, governing most of its territories using fear as its weapon of choice in its persecution and forced conversionism of non-Catholic populations, especially Jewish communities. King Phillip’s decree would bring unimaginable terror to thousands of Jews and other minorities all over the Americas, and especially in Peru. The scars of these old wounds remain with us to this day. Only 3,000 of the 32 million people who call Peru home are Jewish, and the majority of them reside in Lima, the historic city founded by Francisco Pizarro in 1535. Spanish colonists were drawn to the Peruvian colony because of the country's great mining potential.Many “Conversos” or “Marranos” (derogatory names that the Spaniards called crypto-Jews) were among them. Most arrived during the time of the unification of the Spanish and Portuguese crowns from 1580 to about 1640, ignoring all the antisemitic restrictions placed on them even after having converted. But the kings of Spain and Portugal were devout Catholics, including King Phillip II of Spain, who insisted on the presence of the Inquisition, even in places as far away as the Americas. The Inquisition began its reign of terror in Perú on this day, 1569, but carried out relatively few cases until the year 1595. The first auto de fe (“act of faith”) took place on December 17, 1595, in which it is recorded that 10 “Judaizers,” a group of ‘Jewish Christians’ and Conversos who believed that the laws of the Old Testament still applied to Christianity, were judged. Four were eventually released, but one man, Francisco Rodriguez, was burned at the stake. As of December 10, 1600, 14 people were recorded as having been “punished”; by March of 1605, the punishment total was raised to 16. The Inquisition continued its activities for centuries, although with less frequency. Despite the hardships they faced, the Crypto-Jews of Perú quickly rose through the ranks of society to assume influential positions. However, if a Crypto-Jew would seem to grow “too successful,” the Inquisition would conveniently accuse them of “judaizing” and confiscate their property for the Church, imprisoning, torturing, and/or tainting their family to prevent them from ever living a normal life. In one such instance, Antonio Cordero represented a well-known Sevillan merchant who had been criticized by a nearby trader for both refusing to eat pork and for not running his boss's business on Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest.Antonio and 60 of his fellow “Judaizers” were rounded up, tortured, and publicly executed in another auto de fe on January 23, 1639. The most infamous case, however, was that of Francisco Maldonado de Silva, who was imprisoned for 12 years after refusing to renounce his Jewish faith and even going so far in his defiance as to convert two Catholic prisoners to Judaism. The Spanish government branded the crypto-Jewish community of Perú with the title La Complicidad Grande (“The Great Conspiracy”). They continued to authorize many auto-defecation cases for years to come. The Church issued a decree in 1646 that ordered the expulsion of all Crypto-Jews from Perú unless they paid an outrageous fee of 200,000 ducats. This decree reduced the number of'supposed’ Jewish activities for years, the last recorded victims being Manuel Enriquez, who was burned alive in 1664, and Murcia de Luna, who died under torture while in prison that same year. It is said that over 6,000 crypto-Jews still lived in Perú at that time.The Inquisition continued for centuries, with its last recorded victims being Ana de Castro on December 23, 1736, and Juan Antonio Pereira on November 11, 1737. The Inquisition officially ended in Perú around the year 1806, but by that time, there was no more record of crypto-Jewish presence in the country. The Leon Pinello family was a very successful Crypto-Jewish family that grew in power in Perú, as well as all over South America and Spain. However, their patriarch, Juan Lopez, was burned alive with his wife in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1595. The Leon Pinelo School in Lima is named in honor of their family.The Jewish community survives today in Perú with about 3,000 known members, not counting several emerging Crypto-Jewish families coming to light after centuries of persecution. The population is mostly Ashkenazi, with a smaller percentage being Sephardic, and has contributed to much of Perú’s history, economy, and culture. There have even been several Jewish presidents and prime ministers, including former Prime Minister Salomon Lerner Ghitis in 2011 and former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski in 2016.It seems that finally, after centuries of antisemitism and ignorance, the Jewish community of Perú is flourishing once again.