The Xuetes (; singular , also known as and spelled as ) are a social group on the Spanish island of Mallorca, in the Mediterranean Sea, who are descendants of Mallorcan Jews who were either Conversos (forcible converts to Christianity) or crypto-Jews, forced to keep their religion hidden. They practiced strict endogamy by marrying only within their own group. Many of their descendants observe a syncretist form of Christian worship known as Xueta Christianity.
The Xuetes were stigmatized until the first half of the 20th century. In the latter part of the century, the spread of freedom of religion and laïcité reduced both the social pressure and community ties. An estimated 18,000 people in the island carry Xueta surnames in the 21st century, but only a few people (even if with Xueta surnames) are aware of the complex history of this group.
Etymology
The Balearic word derives, according to some experts, from , diminutive of ("Jew") which give , a term that also still survives. Other authors consider that it may derive from the word (pronounced xuia or xua, which means a type of salted bacon and, by extension, pork) and, according to popular belief, refers to Xuetes who were seen eating pork to show that they did not practice Judaism. But 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 ). A third possibility links both putative etymologies; the word may have provoked the substitution of the j of by the x of , and could have been imposed over by the greater phonetic resemblance with .
The Xueta have also been called ("of Segell"), after a street on which many lived, or ("of the street") as a shortened form of ; possibly also by way of Castilian , provoked from an approximate phonetic translation of ("of the Jewish quarter", "of the ghetto"; Catalan , from Hebrew (, community, synagogue, means "jewish quarter"), perhaps made by functionaries of the Spanish Inquisition of Castilian origin, in reference to the old Jewish quarter of the city of Palma de Mallorca. In modern times, it relates to the or the street of the silversmiths, after a street that defines the neighborhood around the church of Santa Eulàlia 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 ("of Hebrew genus") or ("of Hebrew lineage") are used. The Xueta have been referred to simply as ("Jews") or, more frequently, by the Castilianism “”.
The Xuetes, aware of the original offensive meaning of the term , have preferred to identify as , or, most commonly, with or ("we"), opposed to ("the others") or ("those from outside the street").
Surnames The Xueta surnames are Aguiló, Bonnin, Cortès, Fortesa, Fuster, Martí, Miró, Picó, Pinya/Piña, Pomar, Segura, Tarongí, Valentí, Valleriola and Valls, as publicly displayed on the convent of Santo Domingo. Picó and Segura are not found among those condemned by the Inquisition, and Valentí, originally the nickname of a family who were then known as Fortesa, is also absent. Many of those surnames are also very common in the general population of Catalan-speaking territories.
The surnames Galiana, Moyà and Sureda figure among the penitents without having been considered Xuetes.
Numerous surnames in Mallorca with clear Jewish origin are present on the island but are not considered to belong to the Xueta community. Examples include Abraham, Amar, Bofill, Bonet, Daviu, Duran, Homar, Jordà, Maimó, Salom, Vidal. Inquisition registers from the late 15th and early 16th centuries documented more than 330 surnames for those persons condemned in Mallorca.
Therefore, Converso origin is not sufficient to be considered Xueta. Although Xuetas are descendants of Conversos, only a fraction of Converso descendants are considered Xuetas.
Genetics A variety of genetic studies conducted, principally, by the Department of Human Genetics of the University of the Balearic Islands have indicated that the Xuetes constitute a genetically homogeneous group within the populations of Mizrahi Jews and are also related to Ashkenazi Jews and those of North Africa, based on analyzing both the Y chromosome, which traces patrilineal descent, and the mitochondrial DNA, which traces matrilineal descent.
The population is subject to certain pathologies of genetic origin, such as Familial Mediterranean fever,Anna Aldea Tomé, Febre mediterrània familiar , doctoral dissertation in biology, Servei d’Immunologia
de l’Hospital Clínic i Provincial de Barcelona; Barcelona, March 2004. shared with the Sephardi Jews, and a high frequency of iron overload particular to that community. Entrevista / Adolf Tobeña participà en el cicle Cervell, Conducta i Societat , Enllaç Campus UIB, Universitat de les Illes Balears, 2003
Historic antecedents
The (1391–1488)
The assault on the – the Mallorcan Jewish ghettoes – in 1391, the preaching of Vincent Ferrer in 1413, and the conversion of the remainder of the Jewish community of Mallorca, in 1435, are the three events that led to numerous conversions. The community agreed to mass, rather than individual, conversions to manage a collective peril.
Many of the new Christians continued their traditional communal and religious practices. They established the or ("The Confraternity of Saint Michael" or "of the Converts"). It largely replaced former Aljama in taking care of the group's social needs, for instance, assistance to the needy, an internal organ of justice, officiating at weddings, and supporting religious cohesion. At the end of the last quarter of the 15th century, the conversos carried on their activities, some of them clandestine, without suffering external pressures. The guilds did not discriminate based on Jewish origin. The conversos managed some social cohesion.
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 Inquisition – a tribunal newly created by the Catholic Monarchs as part of an effort to forge a nation state on the base of religious uniformity – arrived in Mallorca. The introduction of such a tribunal was followed by public complaints and general opposition in Mallorca, as throughout the rest of the Crown of Aragon, but to no avail. The Inquisition's central objective was the repression of crypto-Judaism, which it began by applying the Edicts of Grace, severely punishing heresy by Christians unless avoided through self-incrimination.
Under the Edicts of Grace (1488–1492), 559 Mallorcans confessed to Jewish practices, and the Inquisition obtained the names of the majority of the Judaizing Mallorcans, who, together with their families and their closest associates, they punished harshly. Subsequently, until 1544, 239 Crypto-Jews were reconciled and 537 were "relaxed" – that is, turned over to the civil authorities to be executed; 82 were 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 from the Crowns of Castile and Aragon; officially no Jews lived in Mallorca by 1435.
The new clandestinity (1545–1673) After this period, the Mallorcan 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 (); 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 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 (literally "purity of blood", most commonly referred to in English by the Spanish language expression ) in the majority of the guild organizations and religious orders. But despite all this, a small group, essentially those who would later be known as the Xuetes, persevered with clandestine Judaism, and maintained 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, dominating the market for insurance and retail commerce of imported products. Other companies were usually owned by , and they gave part of their profits to works of charity in benefit of the "community", unlike the rest of the population, who made charitable 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, of Rome, of Marseille, and of Amsterdam, through whom the converts had access to Jewish literature. It is known that Rafel Valls, known as ("the Rabbi") religious leader of the Mallorcan converts, traveled to Alexandria and Smyrna in the era of Sabbatai Zevi, but it is not known 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 (literally "high ears"), from the rest of the group, ("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 endogamic practices of the period.
Origins The second persecution (1673–1695) The reasons why the Inquisition returned to act against the judaizing Mallorcans 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 1672, a merchant informed the Inquisition that some Jews of Livorno had made inquiries about the Jews of Mallorca with the names "Forteses, Aguilons, Martins, Tarongins, Cortesos, Picons".
In 1673, a ship with a group of Jews expelled from Oran by the Spanish Crown and headed for Livorno, called in at Palma. The Inquisition arrested a youth of some 17 years named Isaac López. López had been born in Madrid and baptized with the name Alonso, and as a small boy fled to the Berber lands with his parents. Alonso refused to renounce Judaism and was burnt alive in 1675. His execution provoked a great commotion among the "judaizers". At the same time he was also the object of great admiration for his persistence and courage.
The same year López was arrested, some servants of the informed their confessor that they had spied upon their masters and observed them participating in Jewish ceremonies.