BOB ABERNETHY: Our Cover Story is about a centuries-old secret recently revealed about hundreds of Hispanic Americans in New Mexico, who were reared in and have practiced one faith for generations. Now they know the true faith of their ancestors, a faith many of those ancestors were forced to give up or hide. Lucky Severson is our reporter.

RUEBEN RUBIO: Four caramel sundaes with nuts.

LUCKY SEVERSON: Rueben Rubio is a retired Albuquerque City official, but he keeps busy working at his sister-in-law's Dairy Queen, counseling troubled kids, and tracing his family's roots. He grew up as a Catholic, like his wife Delores and most Hispanics in New Mexico. And now, like a surprising number of Hispanics, Rueben and Delores are discovering their hidden legacy. Their ancestors were Jews.

Ms. DELORES RUBIO: We always wondered why we were drawn to Jewish things, and yet we didn't know anything about our background.

LAURA VAZQUEZ CASTILLO: I know I was born with a Jewish heart. And so at 15, I started searching, and that was very difficult, because my parents -- my mother especially, was a very, very strong Catholic.

Unidentified Man #1: I knew that I was different, but I didn't know how.

SEVERSON: Now they know -- at least, they believe fervently -- they came from a Jewish heritage. An increasing number of Hispanics are, in their words, "coming out," turning back to the religion of their forefathers. Instead of Mass on Sunday, they attend synagogue on Saturday. Some call themselves born-again Jews, and they're particularly grateful for the work of this man, Stanley Hordes, who stumbled onto the secret of their past when he was appointed New Mexico State Historian.

STANLEY HORDES (New Mexico State Historian): People from within the Hispanic community would come into my office, close the door behind me, look one way, look the other to make sure no one was listening, and they'd lean over my desk and whisper, "So and so in Las Vegas, New Mexico lights candles on Friday night." And I thought, "Well, so what."

SEVERSON: But he kept hearing more whispers about hidden Jews. Finally, Stanley Hordes decided to do some scholarly research. He discovered a long list of customs and traditions peculiar to the Jewish faith among New Mexico's Hispanic population.

Mr. RUBIO: On Fridays, my grandmother, when I was a little kid, always had prayer and always lit some candles. But I thought it was the Catholic candles they were lighting until people started telling me the Jews do this on Fridays.

RUDY ROMERO: I asked her certain questions, such as "Mom, were there any of your relatives that never ate pork or lard?" And she said, "None of my relatives ate pork or lard."

JULIA BUSTOS: I know my great-grandfather's last name -- my grandmother's last name was Nava -- is a Hebrew word. In fact, it means mutilated, it means betrayed.

SEVERSON: There are other signs, like the two Stars of David on the arch over the altar in the Church in San Felipe, an old town in Albuquerque.

Mr. HORDES: As I was walking down the aisles of the church and, you know, quietly just pointed to six-pointed stars, the caretaker of the church stopped me in my tracks, and he said, "I know what you all were doing. You were looking at those Stars of David, weren't you?" And I asked him, "Well, what can you tell me about it?" And he said that "Lots of us here are Jews, we just don't like to talk about it very much."

SEVERSON: It's a secret handed down from generation to generation for almost four centuries. When northern New Mexico was originally settled in the 1600s, many of the settlers were Sephardic Jews, escaping the Inquisition in Mexico. Before that, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella had kicked them out of Spain, where they had prospered for centuries. They were the poets, the philosophers, the scientists, but when they arrived here, they simply disappeared, as if the winds had scattered them across the high desert plateaus. Now we know what happened to them.