Earlier this month, Spanish fans hurled racial taunts at Formula One’s first black driver, Lewis Hamilton, prompting the International Automobile Association to create a “Racing against Racism” campaign for the Spanish Grand Prix in April. Some worry the attacks aren’t isolated, and they aren’t just aimed at blacks.

Sports authorities, athletes and media have either condemned the taunting as endemic of Spanish sports or dismissed it as an isolated event. Spanish soccer has had a number of racist incidents in recent years. Despite fines and legislation aimed at curbing such behavior, some say it is not enough, particularly in light of the most recent abuse. Others, however, disagree, saying that racist incidents in Spain are lower than the UK, France or Germany.

Some say the incident highlights a growing prejudice among some Hispanics. In 2006, after Venezuela’s president Hugo Chávez denounced Israel’s advance into Gaza, anti-Semitic graffiti appeared on the main Sephardic synagogue in Caracas. The Anti-Defamation League has tracked other incidents throughout the world.

Hispanic anti-Semitism began in Spain, according to Ilan Stavans, professor of Latin American and Latino culture at Amherst College in a recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The sentiment later spread to Latin America. In 1994, a terrorist attack killed 85 and injured hundreds at the Argentine Jewish Mutual Aid Association in Buenos Aires. More than a decade later, Stavans says that Jewish sites in Latin America are “tensely vigilant.”

Some have pointed to the Iranian government as the culprit for the attack. In a recent op-ed in The Washington Post, Abraham Foxman, national director the Anti-Defamation League, says Chávez is building relationships with countries and movements that are unabashedly anti-Semitic, including Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Foxman warns that the increasing acceptance of anti-Semitism should not be taken lightly. “Throughout the ages, Jews have been the canary in the coal mine, with any downturn in their treatment or status as equal citizens signaling the decline of democracy within a society.”