Xueta
Encyclopedia
The Xuetes (ʃuˈətə; singular Xueta, also known as Xuetons), were a social group on the island of Majorca, descendants of Majorcan Jews who either converted to Christianity
Converso
A converso and its feminine form conversa was a Jew or Muslim—or a descendant of Jews or Muslims—who converted to Catholicism in Spain or Portugal, particularly during the 14th and 15th centuries. Mass conversions once took place under significant government pressure...
or were forced to keep their religion hidden
Crypto-Judaism
Crypto-Judaism is the secret adherence to Judaism while publicly professing to be of another faith; practitioners are referred to as "crypto-Jews"...
. They practiced strict endogamy
Endogamy
Endogamy is the practice of marrying within a specific ethnic group, class, or social group, rejecting others on such basis as being unsuitable for marriage or other close personal relationships. A Greek Orthodox Christian endogamist, for example, would require that a marriage be only with another...
.
The Xuetes were stigmatized and until the first half of the 20th century, but then by the second half of that century, with the spread of religious freedom and laicism, both the social pressure and community ties eventually vanished. Nowadays an estimated 18,000 people in the island carry Xueta surnames, but only a small fraction of the society (including those with Xueta surnames themselves) is self-aware of the troubled history of this group.
Etymology of Xueta
The Balearic word xueta derives, according to some experts, from juetó, diminutive of jueu ("Jew") which give xuetó, a term that also still survives. Other authors consider that it may derive from the word xulla ' onMouseout='HidePop("30109")' href="/topics/Pork">porkPork
Pork is the culinary name for meat from the domestic pig , which is eaten in many countries. It is one of the most commonly consumed meats worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BC....
) and, according to popular belief, makes reference to Xuetes who were seen eating pork to demonstrate their disaffection from Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
. However, this etymology has also been linked with the tendency, present in various cultures, of using offensive names related to pork to designate Jews and Jewish converts (see, for example Marrano
Marrano
Marranos were Jews living in the Iberian peninsula who converted to Christianity rather than be expelled but continued to observe rabbinic Judaism in secret...
). A third possibility links both putative etymologies; the word xuia may have provoked the substitution of the j of juetó by the x of xuetó, and then xueta could have been imposed over xuetó by the greater phonetic resemblance with xuia.
The Xueta have also been called "del Segell" ("of Segell"), after the street of that name where they are particularly concentrated, or del carrer ("of the street") as a shortened form of "del carrer del Segell"; possibly also by way of Castilian Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
"de la calle", provoked from an approximate phonetic translation of "del call" ("of the Jewish quarter", "of the ghetto"; Catalan/Balear call means "street", often used as a designation for a ghetto, cf. Yiddish gass), perhaps made by functionaries of the Spanish Inquisition
Spanish Inquisition
The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition , commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition , was a tribunal established in 1480 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms, and to replace the Medieval...
of Castilian
Crown of Castile
The Crown of Castile was a medieval and modern state in the Iberian Peninsula that formed in 1230 as a result of the third and definitive union of the crowns and parliaments of the kingdoms of Castile and León upon the accession of the then King Ferdinand III of Castile to the vacant Leonese throne...
origin, in reference to the old Jewish quarter of the city of Palma
Palma de Mallorca
Palma is the major city and port on the island of Majorca and capital city of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. The names Ciutat de Mallorca and Ciutat were used before the War of the Spanish Succession and are still used by people in Majorca. However, the official name...
. In modern times, it relates to the carrer de l'Argenteria or the street of the silversmiths, after a Xueta street that defines the neighborhood around the church of Santa Eulàlia. This neighbourhood is where the majority of the Xueta lived, and takes its name from a popular occupation of that group. In some older official documents, the expressions "de gènere hebreorum" ("of Hebrew genus") or "d'estirp hebrea" ("of Hebrew lineage") are used . The Xueta have been referred to simply as jueus ("Jews") or, more frequently, by the Castilianism “judios”.
The Xuetes, aware of the original offensive meaning of the term xuete, have preferred to refer to themselves among themselves by the names "del Segell", "del carrer" or, most commonly, with "noltros" or "es nostros" ("us"), opposed to "ets altres" ("the others") or "es de fora del carrer" ("those from outside the street").
Xueta surnames
The Xueta surnames are: Aguiló, Bonnin, Cortès, Fortesa, Fuster, Martí, Miró, Picó, Pinya/Piña, Pomar, Segura, Tarongí, Valentí, Valleriola and Valls; Picó and Segura are not found among those condemned by the Inquisition, nor is Valentí, which was originally the nickname of a family who were then known as Fortesa. Notice that many of those surnames are also very common in the general population of Catalan-speaking territories.Surnames Galiana, Moyà and Sureda figure among the penitents without having been considered Xuetes.
There are other surnames in Majorca that clearly are of Jewish origin, e.g., Abraham, Daviu, Duran, Jordà, Maimó, Salom, and Vidal. These derive from a broader converso community. Inquisition
Inquisition
The Inquisition, Inquisitio Haereticae Pravitatis , was the "fight against heretics" by several institutions within the justice-system of the Roman Catholic Church. It started in the 12th century, with the introduction of torture in the persecution of heresy...
registers from the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th century document more than 330 surnames among those condemned in Majorca. The persistence of the group might be explained by it having conserved a particular community structure on certain streets and in professional and mercantile guilds, as well as a complex system of familial alliances, far more than the clandestine practice of Judaism did, which was by no means universal .
Xueta genetics
A variety of genetic studies conducted, principally, by the Departament of Human Genetics of the University of the Balearic IslandsUniversity of the Balearic Islands
The University of the Balearic Islands is a Balearic Spanish university, founded in 1978 and located in Palma on the island of Majorca.-History:...
have indicated that the Xuetes constitute a genetically homogeneous group with the populations of Oriental Jews, and are also related to the Ashkenazi Jews and those of North Africa, based on analyzing both the Y chromosome
Y chromosome
The Y chromosome is one of the two sex-determining chromosomes in most mammals, including humans. In mammals, it contains the gene SRY, which triggers testis development if present. The human Y chromosome is composed of about 60 million base pairs...
, which traces patrilineal descent, and the mitochondrial DNA
Mitochondrial DNA
Mitochondrial DNA is the DNA located in organelles called mitochondria, structures within eukaryotic cells that convert the chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use, adenosine triphosphate...
, which traces matrilineal descent.
Likewise, the population is subject to certain pathologies of genetic origin, such as Familial Mediterranean fever
Familial Mediterranean fever
Familial Mediterranean fever is a hereditary inflammatory disorder. FMF is an autoinflammatory disease caused by mutations in MEFV, a gene which encodes a 781–amino acid protein denoted pyrin....
, shared with the Sephardic Jews and a high frequency of hemochromatosis, particular to that community.
The conversos (1391-1488)
The assault on the calls — the Majorcan Jewish ghettoes — in 1391, the preaching of Vincent FerrerVincent Ferrer
Saint Vincent Ferrer was a Valencian Dominican missionary and logician.-Early life:Vincent was the fourth child of the Anglo-Scottish nobleman William Stewart Ferrer and his Spanish wife, Constantia Miguel. Legends surround his birth...
in 1413, and the conversion of the remainder of the Jewish community of Majorca, in 1435, constituted the three events that gave rise to the social phenomenon of the conversos, which, unlike the individual conversions that had preceded them, were not based on individual religious conviction but on the necessity of overcoming a collective peril.
Because of this, a good number of the new Christians continued their traditional communitary and religious practices. They established the "Confraria de Sant Miquel" or "dels Conversos" ("The Confraternity of Saint Michael" or "of the Converts") as an instrument that replaced, in large measure, the former Aljama
Aljama
Aljama is a term of Arabic origin used in old official documents in Spain and Portugal to designate the self-governing communities of Moors and Jews living under Christian rule in the Iberian Peninsula...
, and thus taking care of the group's necessities in many areas: assistance to the needy, an internal organ of justice, making matrimonial bonds and, naturally, religious cohesion. These converts, at the end of the last quarter of the 15th century, were able to carry on their activities, some of them clandestine, without suffering external pressures — neither institutional nor social — as can be seen from the sparse activity of the papal Inquisition and the general absence of segregationist norms based on Jewish origin in the guilds. This, probably, allowed them to keep the bulk of the group of conversos relatively intact.
The beginnings of the Spanish Inquisition, (1488-1544)
In 1488, while some of the last converts of 1435 were still alive, the first Inquisitors of the Spanish InquisitionSpanish Inquisition
The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition , commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition , was a tribunal established in 1480 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms, and to replace the Medieval...
— a tribunal newly created by the Catholic Monarchs
Catholic Monarchs
The Catholic Monarchs is the collective title used in history for Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon. They were both from the House of Trastámara and were second cousins, being both descended from John I of Castile; they were given a papal dispensation to deal with...
as part of an effort to forge a nation state on the base of religious uniformity — arrived in Majorca. The introduction of such a tribunal was followed by public complaints and general opposition in Majorca, as throughout the rest of the Crown of Aragon
Crown of Aragon
The Crown of Aragon Corona d'Aragón Corona d'Aragó Corona Aragonum controlling a large portion of the present-day eastern Spain and southeastern France, as well as some of the major islands and mainland possessions stretching across the Mediterranean as far as Greece...
, but it was useless. Their central objective was the repression of Crypto-Judaism, which they began by applying the Edicts of Grace, which allow severe punishment for heresy
Heresy
Heresy is a controversial or novel change to a system of beliefs, especially a religion, that conflicts with established dogma. It is distinct from apostasy, which is the formal denunciation of one's religion, principles or cause, and blasphemy, which is irreverence toward religion...
to be avoided through self-incrimination
Self-incrimination
Self-incrimination is the act of accusing oneself of a crime for which a person can then be prosecuted. Self-incrimination can occur either directly or indirectly: directly, by means of interrogation where information of a self-incriminatory nature is disclosed; indirectly, when information of a...
.
By the Edicts of Grace (1488–1492), 559 Majorcans confessed to Jewish practices and the Inquisition obtained the names of the majority of the Judaizing Majorcans, against whom, together with their families and their closest associates, they exercised a harsh punitive activity. Subsequently, until 1544, 239 Crypto-Jews were reconciled and 537 were "relaxed" — that is, turned over to the civil authorities to be executed — 82 of whom were effectively executed and burned. The majority of the remaining 455, who managed to flee, were burnt in effigy. This exile was distinct from the decree of expulsion of 1492, which did not apply to Majorca, which officially had no Jews left in it by 1435.
The new clandestinity (1545-1673)
After this period, the Majorcan Inquisition ceased to act against the judaizers, even though there were signs of prohibited practices; the causes may have been: the participation of the inquisitorial structure in conflicts between local armed factions (bandositats); the appearance of new religious phenomena such as some conversions to Islam and Protestantism or the control of the morality of the clergy. But, beyond a doubt, also the adoption of more efficacious strategies of protection on the part of the Crypto-Jews: the later inquisitorial trials talk about how religious practices were transferred within families when a child reached the age of adolescence and, very often in the case of the women, when it became clear whom she would marry and what were the husband's religious convictions.In any event, this period was characterized by the reduction of the group by means of the flight of the penitents of the earlier epoch, the unconditional adhesion to Catholicism of the majority of those who remained, and the generalization of the statutes of neteja de sang (literally "purity of blood", most commonly referred to in English by the Spanish language expression limpieza de sangre
Limpieza de sangre
Limpieza de sangre , Limpeza de sangue or Neteja de sang , meaning "cleanliness of blood", played an important role in modern Iberian history....
) in the majority of the guild organizations and religious orders. But despite all of this, a small group persevered in their clandestine practices, essentially those who would later be known as the Xuetes, those who, furthermore, maintained and adopted social, familial, and economic strategies of internal cohesion.
From 1640, the descendants of the converts began a marked process of economic ascent and increasing commercial influence. Previously, and with some exceptions, they had been artisans, shopkeepers, and retail distributors, but starting from this time, and for reasons not well explained, some began to focus strongly on economic activity: they created complex mercantile companies, participated in foreign trade, coming to control, at the time of the end of the inquisitorial trials, 36% of the total, they dominated the market for insurance and retail commerce of imported products. Otherwise, companies were usually owned by conversos, and they gave part of their profits to works of charity in benefit of the "community", unlike the rest of the population, that used to give its profites as charity donations to the Church.
Because of the intense exterior economic activity, the Xuetes resumed their contact with the international communities of Jews, especially of Livorno
Livorno
Livorno , traditionally Leghorn , is a port city on the Tyrrhenian Sea on the western edge of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of approximately 160,000 residents in 2009.- History :...
, of Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, of Marseille
Marseille
Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...
, and of Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
, through whom the converts had access to Jewish literature. It is known that Rafel Valls, known as "el Rabí" ("the Rabbi") religious leader of the Majorcan converts, traveled to Alexandria
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
and Smyrna
Smyrna
Smyrna was an ancient city located at a central and strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. Thanks to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence and its good inland connections, Smyrna rose to prominence. The ancient city is located at two sites within modern İzmir, Turkey...
in the era of the false messiah Sabetai Zvi, but it is unknown whether he had any contact with him.
An internal system of social stratification probably began in that period, although it is also believed to be a remnant of the Jewish (pre-conversion) period. This system distinguished a kind of aristocracy, called "orella alta" (literally "high ears"), from the rest of the group, "orella baixa" ("low ears"). Along with other distinctions based on religion, professions, and parentage this configured a tapestry of alliances and avoidances among surnames, which had a great influence on endogamistic practices of the period.
The second persecution (1673-1695)
The reasons why the Inquisition returned to act against the judaizing Majorcans after some 130 years of inactivity, and in an era in which the inquisition was already in decline are not very clear: the preoccupation of decadent economic sectors before the ascent and commercial dynamism of the converts, the resumption of religious practices in community, rather than limited to a domestic context, a new growth of religious zeal, and the judgment against Alonso López could have been influential factors.The precedents
In July of 1672, a merchant informed the Inquisition that some Jews of Livorno had made inquiries about the Jews of Majorca with the names "Forteses, Aguilons, Tarongins, Cortesos, Picons".In 1673, a ship with a group of Jews expelled from Oran
Oran
Oran is a major city on the northwestern Mediterranean coast of Algeria, and the second largest city of the country.It is the capital of the Oran Province . The city has a population of 759,645 , while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately 1,500,000, making it the second largest...
by the Spanish Crown and headed for Livorno, called in at Palma. The Inquisition arrested a youth of some 17 years who went by the name Isaac López, who had been born in Madrid and baptised with the name of Alonso, and as a small boy fled to the Berber
Berber people
Berbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. They are continuously distributed from the Atlantic to the Siwa oasis, in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean to the Niger River. Historically they spoke the Berber language or varieties of it, which together form a branch...
lands with his two converso parents. Alonso refused to repent and was finally burnt alive in 1675. His execution provoked a great commotion among the judaizers, while also being the object of great admiration for his persistence and courage.
The same year López was arrested, some servants of the conversos informed their confessor that they had spied upon their masters participating in Jewish ceremonies.
In 1674, the prosecutor of the Majorca tribunal sent a report to the Supreme Inquisition in which he accused the Majorcan Crypto-Jews of 33 charges, among them their refusal to marry "cristians de natura" ("natural Christians") and their social rejection of those who did so; the practice of secrecy; the imposition of Old Testament names for their children; the identification with their tribe of origin, and the arrangement of marriages as a function of that fact; the exclusion in their homes of the iconography of the New Testament and the presence of those of the Old; contempt for and insults toward Christians; exercising professions related to weights and measures in order to trick Christians; holding positions in the Church in order to later mock them with impunity; applying their own legal system; taking up collections for their own poor; financing a synagogue in Rome, where they had a representative; holding clandestine meetings; complying with Jewish dietetic practices, including those of animal sacrifice and of fast days; the observance of the Jewish Sabbath
Shabbat
Shabbat is the seventh day of the Jewish week and a day of rest in Judaism. Shabbat is observed from a few minutes before sunset on Friday evening until a few minutes after when one would expect to be able to see three stars in the sky on Saturday night. The exact times, therefore, differ from...
; and avoidance of Last Rites
Anointing of the Sick
Anointing of the Sick, known also by other names, is distinguished from other forms of religious anointing or "unction" in that it is intended, as its name indicates, for the benefit of a sick person...
at the time of death.
Conspiracism
Four years later, in 1677, the Supreme Inquisition ordered the Majorcan Inquisition to act on the case of the confession of the servants. According to the servants, the observants, as they called themselves, in reference to the Law of MosesTorah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
, met in a garden in Palma where they observed Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur , also known as Day of Atonement, is the holiest and most solemn day of the year for the Jews. Its central themes are atonement and repentance. Jews traditionally observe this holy day with a 25-hour period of fasting and intensive prayer, often spending most of the day in synagogue...
. This led to the detention of some of the leaders of the Crypto-Jewish community of Majorca, Pere Onofre Cortès (also known as Moixina), master of one of the servants and proprietor of the garden, along with five other people. From that point on, they proceeded to arrest 237 individuals in the course of a single year.
Helped by corrupt functionaries, the accused were able to arrange to only provide limited information in their own confessions and to denounce as few of their co-religionists as possible. All of the accused solicited the opportunity to return to the Church, and were reconciled.
Part of the penalty consisted of the confiscation of all of the goods of the condemned, which were valued at two million Majorcan lliura which, according to the usual procedures of the inquisition, had to be paid in actual currency. This constituted an exorbitant quantity for the era and, according to a protest of the Gran i General Consell
Gran i General Consell
The Gran i General Consell was the supreme political, administrative, and representative organ of the Kingdom of Majorca. Since the Kingdom of Majorca did not have courts, the Gran i General Consell took over most of the functions they would otherwise have had, including the role of a...
, there was not this much hard cash on the entire island.
Finally, in the spring of 1679, five autos de fe took place, the first of which was preceded by the demolition of the building in the garden and the sowing of salt where the conversos met. Before an expectant multitude, condemnation was pronounced against 221 conversos. Afterward, those who were condemned to prison were transported to serve out their sentences in new prisons erected by the Inquisition, and had their goods confiscated.
The Cremadissa (mass burning)
Once the jail penalties were served, a great part of those who persisted in the Jewish faith, whose clandestine practices were noticed, harassed by inquisitorial vigilance and vexed by a society they considered responsible for the economic crisis provoked by the confiscations, decided to gradually flee the island in small groups.In the middle of this process, an anecdoctal event precipitated a new wave of inquisitions. Rafel Cortès, (also known as Cap loco or Crazy head), had remarried, this time with a woman with a converso surname, Miró, but who was Catholic. His family did not congratulate him on getting married and censured him for having married someone not of Jewish ancestry. Hurt in his pride, he denounced some of their correligionists before the Inquisition of maintaining the prohibited faith. Suspecting that he had made a general denunciation, they agreed upon a mass escape. On 7 March 1688, a large group of converts embarked clandestinely on an English vessel, but unexpected rough weather prevented them from leaving and at daybreak, they returned to their houses. The Inquisition was notified of this and all of the group was arrested.
The trials lasted three years and the cohesion of the group was weakened by a strict regime of isolation, which prevented any joint action, together with a perception of religious defeat due to the impossibility of escape. In 1691, the Inquisition, in three autos de fe, condemned 73 people, of whom 45 were turned over to the civil authorities to be burnt, 5 burnt in effigy; 3 already deceased had their bones burned, 37 were effectively punished; of these, three — Rafel Valls and the brothers Rafel Benet and Caterina Tarongí — were burned alive. 30,000 people attended.
The sentences dictated by the Inquisition included other penalties that were to be maintained for at least two generations: those in the household of the condemned, as well as their children and grandchildren, could not hold public offices, be ordained as priests, marry persons other than Xuetes, carry jewelry or ride a horse. These last two penalties do not appear to have been carried out, although the others continued in effect by the force of custom, beyond the two generations stipulated.
The final trials
The Inquisition opened, and eventually closed, several trials of individuals denounced by the accused of the autos de fe of 1691, the majority dead, a single auto de fe was brought in 1695 against 11 dead people and one living woman (who was reconciled). Also, in the 18th century, the Inquisition carried out two individual trials: in 1718, Rafel Pinya spontaneously inculpated himself and was reconciled, and in 1720, Gabriel Cortès, (also known as Morrofés) fled to Alexandria and converted formally to Judaism; he was burnt in effigy as the last person condemned to death by the Majorcan Inquisition. There is no doubt that these last cases are anecdotal; with the trials of 1691 came the end of the Crypto-Jewry of Majorca, the effect of the escape of the leaders, the devastation of the mass burnings, and the generalized fear made it impossible to sustain the ancestral faith. It is after these events, we can begin to actually speak of the Xuetes.Faith Triumphant
The same year as the autos de fe of 1691, Francesc Garau, Jesuit, theologian and active participant in the inquisitorial trials, published la Fee Triunfante en quatro autos celebrados en Mallorca por el Santo Oficio de la Inquisición en que an salido ochenta i ocho reos, i de treinta, i siete relaiados solo uvo tres pertinaces (Faith Triumphant in four acts celebrated in Majorca by the Holy Office of the Inquisition in which tried eighty-eight defendants, and of thirty-seven turned over to civil authorities only three remained stubborn), leaving de banda la seva importance as a documentary and historical source, the intention of the book was to perpetuate the record and the infamy of the converts and contributed notably to provide an ideological basis for the segregation of the Xuetes and to perpetuate it. It was republished in 1755, used in the argumentation to limit the civil rights of the Xuetes and served as the basis of the libel of 1857, La Sinagoga Balear o historia de los judios mallorquines (The Balearic Synagogue or the history of the Majorcan Jews). In the 20th century, there have been abundant republications, all with an intention contrary to that of its author, given that some passages were of scandalous crudity, and lack the most elementary sensibility.Les gramalletes
The gramalleta or sambenet was a tunicTunic
A tunic is any of several types of clothing for the body, of various lengths reaching from the shoulders to somewhere between the hips and the ankles...
that individuals condemned by the Inquisition were forced to wear as punishment. The decorations on the gramalleta indicated what crime its bearer had committed and the punishment imposed. Once the autos-de-fe were over, a painting was created of the convicted heretic wearing the gramalleta and the name of its bearer was included in the painting. In the case of Majorca, these were exhibited publicly in the cloister of St. Domingo to perpetuate and exemplify the record of the verdict.
Because of the deterioration of this public display, the Supreme Inquisition ordered its renovation on several occasions in the 17th century. The matter led to conflict because of the presence of a great number of lineages, some of which coincided with those of the nobility, but finally in 1755 the order was carried out, surely because it was now restricted to the renovation of sambenets after 1645, and that the lineages thus implicated in Judaic practices were limited strictly to Xuetes, not the broader range of people prosecuted at an earlier date. The sambenets were to remain exposed until 1820, when a group of Xuetes assaulted and burned St. Domingo.
In the same year, 1755, in which Faith Triumphant was republished, another work was published as well, the Relación de los sanbenitos que se han puesto, y renovado este año de 1755, en el Claustro del Real Convento de Santo Domingo, de esta Ciudad de Palma, por el Santo Oficio de la Inquisición del Reyno de Mallorca, de reos relaxados, y reconciliados publicamente por el mismo tribunal desde el año de 1645 (The relation of the sanbenitos that have been placed, and renovated this year of 1755, in the cloister of the royal convent of Santo Domingo, of this city of Palma, by the Holy Office of the Inquisition of the Kingdom of Majorca, of defendants relaxados, and reconciled publicly be the same tribunal from the year 1645), to insist on the necessity of not forgetting, despite the active opposition of those affected.
The Xueta community
The attitude of the Inquisition, which intended to force the disappearance of the Jews by means of their forcible integration into the Christian community, in fact accomplished the opposite; it perpetuated the memory of the condemned and, by extension, of all who carried the infamous lineages, even if they were not relatives and even if they were sincere Christians, and helped create a community that, although it no longer contained Judaic element, was still obliged to maintain a strong cohesion. In contrast, the descendents of the island's other crypto-Jews, those who were not so brought to the public view, lost all notion of their origins.But, soon after, the Xuetes regained the leading role that they had before the inquisitorial trials. Now, deprived of their religious network, and their fortunes having been requisitioned, they sought to protect commercial alliances with the nobility and the clergy, even with the functionaries of the Inquisition. The renewed energy and the political alliances achieved permitted them to fight actively for equal rights, adjusting to whatever the surrounding circumstances were.
The War of the Spanish Succession (1705-1715)
As with the rest of the island's population during the War of the Spanish SuccessionWar of the Spanish Succession
The War of the Spanish Succession was fought among several European powers, including a divided Spain, over the possible unification of the Kingdoms of Spain and France under one Bourbon monarch. As France and Spain were among the most powerful states of Europe, such a unification would have...
, amongst Xuetes there were both maulets
Maulets
The Maulets was a partisan group of Valencian supporters of Archduke Charles, who claimed the Spanish throne as Charles III during the War of the Spanish Succession...
— supporters of the Habsburg Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles VI was the penultimate Habsburg sovereign of the Habsburg Empire. He succeeded his elder brother, Joseph I, as Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia , Hungary and Croatia , Archduke of Austria, etc., in 1711...
and botifler
Botifler
Botiflers was a name given to Philip V of Spain supporters during the War of the Spanish Succession. They were usually Catalan aristocrats and noblemen who wanted to increase their power from the upcoming regime that would result after Bourbon victory...
s — supporters of the Bourbon
House of Bourbon
The House of Bourbon is a European royal house, a branch of the Capetian dynasty . Bourbon kings first ruled Navarre and France in the 16th century. By the 18th century, members of the Bourbon dynasty also held thrones in Spain, Naples, Sicily, and Parma...
Philip V of Spain
Philip V of Spain
Philip V was King of Spain from 15 November 1700 to 15 January 1724, when he abdicated in favor of his son Louis, and from 6 September 1724, when he assumed the throne again upon his son's death, to his death.Before his reign, Philip occupied an exalted place in the royal family of France as a...
. Some of the latter perceived the French dynasty as a modernizing element in terms of religion and society, since Bourbon France had never exhibited an attitude of repression and discrimination comparable to the Habsburg rule in Spain, renewed — in the case of Majorca — with Charles II
Charles II of Spain
Charles II was the last Habsburg King of Spain and the ruler of large parts of Italy, the Spanish territories in the Southern Low Countries, and Spain's overseas Empire, stretching from the Americas to the Spanish East Indies...
.
Thus, a group of Xuetes, led by Gaspar Pinya, clothing dealer and importer, supplier of the botifler nobility, was very active supporting Philip's cause. In 1711, a conspiracy financed by Pinya was discovered. He was sentenced to jail and his properties seized but, as the war ended with a Bourbon victory, he was rewarded with rights associated to the lesser nobility; this did not affect the rest of the community.
The republication of Faith Triumphant (1755)
The tailor Rafel Cortes, Tomàs Forteza and the hunchback Jeroni Cortès, among others, raised a request to the Real Audiencia de Mallorca (Royal Majorcan High Court, the island's highest court) aiming to prevent the republication of Faith Triumphant in 1755, which was accepted and so the book's distribution prevented for a time. Eventually, the Inquisitors allowed distribution to be resumed.The deputies of the Carrer (1773-1788)
In 1773, the Xuetes designated a group of six deputies — popularly known by the name of "perruques" (the wigs) because of the luxurious adornment they used during their lobbying — in order to address King Charles IIICharles III of Spain
Charles III was the King of Spain and the Spanish Indies from 1759 to 1788. He was the eldest son of Philip V of Spain and his second wife, the Princess Elisabeth Farnese...
, in order to make a claim for outright social and juridical equality with other Majorcans. In this regard, the Court decided to inquire of the Majorcan institutions, which frontally and decidedly opposed the pretensions of the descendants of the conversos. A lengthy and costly trial followed, in which the parties passionately stated their cases. The documents used in this trial demonstrate the extent to which discrimination was alive and had deep ideological roots; conversely, they are also a proof of the perseverance of the Xuetes in their demands for equality.
In October 1782, the prosecutor of the Real Audiencia de Mallorca, despite being aware of the result of these deliberations favorable to the Xuetes, raised a memorandum including highly racist reasoning, proposing the suspension of the accord and the exile of the Xuetes to Minorca
Minorca
Min Orca or Menorca is one of the Balearic Islands located in the Mediterranean Sea belonging to Spain. It takes its name from being smaller than the nearby island of Majorca....
and to Cabrera
Cabrera, Balearic Islands
Cabrera is an uninhabited islet in the Balearic Islands, Spain, located in the Mediterranean Sea off the southern coast of Majorca. It is currently a National Park...
, where they would be confined with strong restrictions on their liberty.
Finally, the king inclined, timidly, in favor of the Xuetes: on 29 November 1782 he signed the Real Cédula (Royal Decree) that decreed liberty of movement and residency, the elimination of all architectonic
Architectonic
Architectonic may mean:*pertaining to architecture, or suggesting the qualities of architecture*in Aristotelianism, as well as Kantianism, systematization of all knowledge...
elements that distinguished the Segell district, and the prohibition of insults, mistreatment, and the use of denigrating expressions. Also, with reservations, the king showed himself to be favorable to the establishment of outright professional liberty and the participation of the Xuetes in the navy and army, but gave instructions that these dispositions would not take effect until some time had passed in order to allow the controversy to ease.
Before half a year had passed, the deputies insisted again on gaining access to whatever occupation, reporting that the insults and discrimination had not stopped and complaining about the exhibition of the sambenets at St. Domingo. The king designated a panel to study the problem; the panel proposed the withdrawal of the sambenets; the prohibition of Faith Triumphant; the dispersion throughout the city, if necessary by force, of the Xuetes and the elimination of all formal mechanisms of mutual assistance among them; access without restriction to all ecclesiastical, universitary and military positions; the abolition of the guilds; and the suppression of the statutes of "purity of blood", and, if this were not possible, to limit these to 100 years; these last two were proposed to be applied throughout the kingdom.
Then began a new period of consultations and a new trial, which generated on October 1785 a second Cédula Real, which largely ignored the panel's proposal, and was limited to allowing access to the army and the civil administration. Finally, in 1788, a final disposition established simple equality in the exercise of whatever office, but still without a word about the universitary nor ecclesiastical positions. That same year, the Court and the General Inquisition took action intended to withdraw the sambenets from the cloister, but without result.
Probably the most palpable effect of the Cédulas Reales was the slow desarticulation of the Segell community (el Carrer). Instead, there came to be small nuclei of Xuetes among the majority of the population and, timidly, some began to establish other streets and neighbourhoods. For those remaining at Segell, the same attitudes of social discrimination, matrimonial endogamy and traditional professions were kept but, in any case, segregation was overt and public in the world of education and religion, bastions untouched by the reforms of Charles III.
The end of the Old Regime (1812-1868)
Majorca was not occupied during the Napoleonic invasion and, in contrast to the liberalismLiberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
that dominated the new Spanish Constitution of 1812
Spanish Constitution of 1812
The Spanish Constitution of 1812 was promulgated 19 March 1812 by the Cádiz Cortes, the national legislative assembly of Spain, while in refuge from the Peninsular War...
, the island became a refuge for those whose ideology was most intransigent and favorable to the Old Regime. In this context, in 1808, soldiers who had been mobilized to go to the front accused the Xuetes of being responsible for their mobilization, and assaulted the Segell district.
The 1812 Constitution, in effect through 1814, abolished the Inquisition and established the full civil equality that the Xuetes had long sought; consequently, the most active Xuetes joined the liberal cause. In 1820, when the Constitution was restored, a group of Xuetes attacked the headquarters of the Inquisition and the Santo Domingo monastery, burning the archives and the sambenets. In turn, when the Constitution was again abolished in 1823, the Carrer was again raided and the shops looted. Such episodes were frequent during this period, as were similar incidents elsewhere on the island, with riots taking place in Felanitx
Felanitx
Felanitx is a municipality in the Spanish autonomous community of the Balearic Islands, located in the southeast of Majorca, 48 kilometres from the capital Palma....
, Llucmajor
Llucmajor
Llucmajor is the largest municipality of the Balearic Island Majorca.There are sixteen towns in the district, including the town of Llucmajor and parts of s'Arenal, Cala Blava and Cala Pí.- Towns in the district :...
, Pollença
Pollença
Pollença is a town and municipality situated in the far north corner of the island of Majorca, near Cap de Formentor and Alcúdia. It lies about 6 km west of its port, Port de Pollença.-History:...
, Sóller
Sóller
Sóller is a town and municipality near the north west coast of Mallorca, in the Balearic Islands of Spain. The town is some 3km inland, from the Port de Sóller, in a large, bowl-shaped valley that also includes the village of Fornalutx and the hamlets of Biniaraix and Binibassi. The combined...
, and Campos.
In 1836, Onofre Cortès was appointed councilor of the Palma town hall; it was the first time since the 16th century that a Xueta had occupied a public office at such a level. Since then, it has been a regular occurrence that a Xueta holds a public office in the townhall and the Diputación Provincial.
In 1857, La sinagoga balear o historia de los judios de Mallorca (The Balearic synagogue or the history of the Jews of Majorca) was published and signed by Juan de la Puerta Vizcaino. A good part of this book reproduced Faith Triumphant and would be replicated a year later with the work Un milagro y una mentira. Vindicación de los mallorquines cristianos de estirpe hebrea (A miracle and a lie. Vindication of the Majorcan Christians of Hebrew lineage).
Although the ideological duality within the Xueta community can be traced back to a time prior to the inquisitorial trials, it was in this context of violent sudden changes that it became clear that one faction, clearly a minority, yet influential, was declaredly liberal, later republican, and moderately anticlerical, fighting for the liquidation of all traces of discrimination; and another, probably the majority, yet almost imperceptible in historical records, was ideologically conservative, fervently religious, and wanted to go as unnoticed as possible. At root, both strategies wished to attain the same goal: the disappearance of the Xueta issue, although they wanted to resolve it in different ways: one by making the injustice visible and the other by blending into the surrounding society.
Coinciding with these progressive periods, the Xuetes formed social clubs and associations of mutual aid; it is also during this time that they gained positions in political institutions via the liberal parties.
From the First Republic to the Second Republic (1869-1936)
Once they could, some well-off families gave their children a high degree of intellectual education and played an important part in the artistic movements of the period. Xuetes took a leading role in the RenaixençaRenaixença
The Renaixença was an early 19th century late romantic revivalist movement in Catalan language and culture, akin to the Galician Rexurdimento or the Occitan Félibrige movements. The first stimuli of the movement date of the 1830s and 1840s, but the Renaixença stretches up into the 1880s, until it...
(the revival of Catalan culture), in the defense of the Catalan language and in the recuperation of the Jocs Florals (Catalan/Balear literary competitions). A forerunner of this revival was Tomàs Aguiló i Cortès at the beginning of the 19th century, and some prominent successors were Tomàs Aguiló i Forteza, Marian Aguiló i Fuster, Tomàs Forteza i Cortès, and Ramón Picó i Campamar.
Josep Tarongí (1847–1890), priest and writer, encountered difficulties in studying and graduating, but was ultimately ordained; because of his Xueta extraction, he obtained a position outside Majorca. He was the protagonist of the greatest 19th century polemic on the Xueta question: when he was forbidden in 1876 to preach at the church of St. Miquel, this began a polemic with Miquel Maura (also an ecclesiastic), brother of the politician Antoni
Antonio Maura Montaner
Antonio Maura y Montaner was Prime Minister of Spain on five separate occasions: 5 December 1903-16 December 1904, 25 January 1907-21 October 1909, 22 March 1918-9 November 1918, 14 April 1919-20 July 1919, and 13 August 1921-8 March 1922....
, in which many other parties participated, and which had a great impact both on and off of the island.
Between January and October 1923, the Xueta urbanist and politician Guillem Forteza Pinya was mayor of Palma. Also, between 1927 and 1930, during the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera
Miguel Primo de Rivera
Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja, 2nd Marquis of Estella, 22nd Count of Sobremonte, Knight of Calatrava was a Spanish dictator, aristocrat, and a military official who was appointed Prime Minister by the King and who for seven years was a dictator, ending the turno system of alternating...
, that office was held by Joan Aguiló Valentí and Rafel Ignaci Cortès Aguiló.
The brief period of the Second Spanish Republic
Second Spanish Republic
The Second Spanish Republic was the government of Spain between April 14 1931, and its destruction by a military rebellion, led by General Francisco Franco....
was also important both because of the official laïcism
Laïcité
French secularism, in French, laïcité is a concept denoting the absence of religious involvement in government affairs as well as absence of government involvement in religious affairs. French secularism has a long history but the current regime is based on the 1905 French law on the Separation of...
and because a good number of the Xuetes sympathized with the new model of the state, much as their forbears had sympathized with the ideas of the Enlightenment and the liberals. During the Republic, for the first time a Xueta priest preached a sermon at the cathedral of Palma; this had great symbolic importance.
From the Spanish Civil War to present times (1936-today)
At the end of the Republican era, many Xuetes were victims of the FrancoistFrancisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
repression, while many others supported Franco's Nationalist military rebellion, the latter despite the fact that, prompted by the Falange
Falange
The Spanish Phalanx of the Assemblies of the National Syndicalist Offensive , known simply as the Falange, is the name assigned to several political movements and parties dating from the 1930s, most particularly the original fascist movement in Spain. The word means phalanx formation in Spanish....
and the Nazi German
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
government, it is rumoured that "lists" and "inquiries" were made during the first moments of the Spanish Civil War and, later on, during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
for an eventual monitoring of the Xuetes, who were considered to be elements linked to European Jews.. Allegedly, the highest Catholic official in the island, Bishop Miralles, asked for a report enlarging Xuetes numbers in a way that the number of people potentially subjected to reprisals was too large to be addressed. In any case, this is an obscure and poorly documented episode.
Anti-Xueta prejudice continued to diminish with the opening of the island to tourism in the first decades of the 20th century, along with economic development which started by the end of the previous century. The presence—in many cases, the permanent residency—of outsiders on the island (Spaniards or foreigners) to whom the status of the Xuetes meant nothing, marked a definite point of inflection in the history of this community.
Also, in 1966, the publication of the book Els descendents dels Jueus Conversos de Mallorca. Quatre mots de la veritat (The descendants of the converted Jews of Majorca. Four words of truth), by Miguel Forteza Piña, brother of mayor Guillem, which made public the researches of Baruch Braunstein at the National Historical Archive in Madrid (published in the United States in the 1930s) regarding inquisitorial archives that demonstrated that in Majorca those condemned for judaizing affected more than 200 Majorcan surnames; this raised the last popular controversy over the Xueta question. It was in this moment when discriminatory attitudes ended up marginalized in the private dimension and their public expression virtually disappeared.
Freedom of religion
Freedom of religion
Freedom of religion is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance; the concept is generally recognized also to include the freedom to change religion or not to follow any...
, while restricted to private practice of religion only, was legally introduced at the end of the Franco era. This made possible some contact to Judaism and enhanced during the 1960s some revivalist movements which did not go further than the case of Nicolau Aguiló, who in 1977 emigrated to Israel and returned to Judaism with the name Nissan ben-Avraham
Nissan Ben-Avraham
Nissan Ben-Avraham is a Spanish sephardic rabbi who is descended from the Xueta, or forcibly converted, Jews of Majorca, Spain.- Biography :...
, later obtaining the title of rabbi. In any case, Judaism and the Xuetes have had a relation of a certain ambivalence in that dealing with Jews who have adhered to a Christian tradition had been a matter not contemplated by the political and religious authorities of Israel, who seem to give importance to the fact of being "of Christian tradition", while for those Xuetes interested in some form of drawing closer to world Jewry, their differentiated existence is explained only by the fact of being "Jews". Perhaps this duality explains the existence of a syncretic Judæo-Christian cult called cristianisme xueta ("Xueta Christianity")
Xueta Christianity
Xueta Christianity is a syncretic Judæo-Christian minority group existing in the island of Majorca, Spain, preached by Cayetano Martí Valls and followed by Xueta people, who are supposedly descendents of persecuted Jews who were converted to Christianity....
, although very much a minority, preached by Cayetano Martí Valls.
An important event, with the advent of democracy, was the election in 1979 of Ramon Aguiló (of direct Xueta ancestry), re-elected socialist mayor of Palma until 1991, whose election by popular vote could be considered the principal evidence of the decline of discrimination, ratified by other cases, such as that of Francesc Aguiló, mayor of Campanet.
All of this, however, does not imply a complete elimination of rejection of the Xuetes, as is indicated by a poll conducted by the Universitat de les Illes Balears in 2001, in which 30% of Majorcans affirmed that they would not marry a Xueta, and 5% declared that they would not even want to have Xuetes as friends, numbers that, despite being high, are nuanced by the seniority of those in favor of discrimination.
Several Xueta institutions have been created in recent years — the association ARCA-Llegat Jueu ("Jewish Legacy"), the investigative group Memòria del Carrer, the religious group Institut Rafel Valls, the magazine Segell and the city of Palma has joined the Red de Juderias de España, ("Network of Spanish Jewries" Spanish cities with a historic Jewish presence) — altogether implying the passing of an attitude of occultation in favor of the expression of a plural reality that is naturally manifest.
A son of the community, Rabbi Nissan Ben-Avraham
Nissan Ben-Avraham
Nissan Ben-Avraham is a Spanish sephardic rabbi who is descended from the Xueta, or forcibly converted, Jews of Majorca, Spain.- Biography :...
returned to Spain in 2010 after being ordained as a rabbi in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
.