Genetic studies on judeoconversos ("new christians") from Iberia

[curupira]

There are two ethnic judeoconverso ("new christian") enclaves in Iberia I'm aware of: the Xuetas from Majorca and those from Belmonte, Northern Portugal. They are very small communities. Those of Belmonte have managed to keep secret Jewish practices in spite of being an isolated endogamic group in the last 5 centuries. Both show Jewish genetics:

The Xuetas (an endogamic group of judeoconversos - "new christians") appeared quite Near Eastern compared to the rest of the population where they live (I've just read this study):


A variety of genetic studies conducted, principally, by the Departament of Human Genetics of the University of the Balearic Islands 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, which traces patrilineal descent, and the mitochondrial DNA, which traces matrilineal descent
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chueta

http://www.uib.es/digitalAssets/127/127863_68_gen.pdf
http://i44.tinypic.com/25zi88g.jpg

The Belmonte Jews:


The marranos that have been living in Belmonte are sometimes referred to as the "Belmonte Jews." They are a community that has survived in secrecy for hundreds of years by maintaining a tradition of endogamy and by hiding all the external signs of their faith.

The community in the municipality of Belmonte, Cova da Beira subregion, Portugal, goes back to the 12th century and they were only discovered in 1917 by a Polish Jewish mining engineer named Samuel Schwarz. Some of them returned to Judaism in the 1970s, and opened a synagogue, Bet Eliahu, in 1996.[1] In 2003, the Belmonte Project was founded under the auspices of the American Sephardi Federation, in order to raise funds to acquire Judaic educational material and services for the community[2] (which now numbers 300).[3] A Jewish Museum of Belmonte] (Museu Judaico de Belmonte) [4] opened on 17 April 2005.

Their Sephardic tradition of Crypto-Judaism is considered unique.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belmonte_Jews

Amazingly, a "New Christian" sample from Belmonte, Northern Portugal, plotted closer to other Jewish populations than to Iberians. They practiced so much endogamy that according to a Behar study a single haplotype would account for 93% of their maternal lineages (one also found among Sephardic diaspora communities from the former Ottoman Empire):

A map from an autusomal Behar DNA study on Jews (SJ - Sephardic Jews; AJ - Ashkenazi Jews; SbJ - Belmonte Jews; MJ - Moroccan Jews):

http://i42.tinypic.com/4kjl03.jpg

[Tooting Carmen]

wow

[Cristiano viejo]

where is the new?¿:confused:

[curupira]

A very interesting documentary on the "last Marranos", the Xueta from Majorca were discriminated against as late as the XX century:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CpidcjO5uU

In the video above, these two Belmonte crypto-Jews captured my attention, in spite of living in isolation, practicing secret Judaism for almost 5 centuries (!), they still remind me of their Levantine/Near Eastern origins (DNA testing has already found them plotting near Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews):

http://i44.tinypic.com/oh1m5k.png

A Samuel Newhouse look-alike:

http://i42.tinypic.com/5d1kz6.jpg

[Ibericus]

Joder, llegas un poco tarde, ese estudio tiene ya más de una decada. Ya se sabe hace tiempo que los Sefarditas son genéticamente distintos a los ibéricos, no es ninguna novedad,

[Cristiano viejo]

Joder, llegas un poco tarde, ese estudio tiene ya más de una decada. Ya se sabe hace tiempo que los Sefarditas son genéticamente distintos a los ibéricos, no es ninguna novedad,

Indeed.
But the important thing is check as these Jews did not mix with Iberian population, unlike people (anti-Spanish) think.

[Damião de Góis]

A very interesting documentary on the "last Marranos", the Xueta from Majorca were discriminated against as late as the XX century:


The negative expression "judiaria" is still used today, even if there are no longer any jews here.

[curupira]

This is how the crypto-Jewish community of Belmonte was uncovered, as told in the book "A History the Marranos", by the historian Cecil Roth:


In 1917, a Polish Jewish mining engineer established at Lisbon, M. Samuel Schwarz, was on a business visit to Belmonte, a somewhat inaccessible spot in the hill-country in the north of Portugal, not far from the Spanish frontier. One of the inhabitants, desirous of obtaining his patronage, warned him pointedly against having anything to do with one of his competitors. "It is enough for me to tell you," he said, "that the man is a judeu—a Jew." The information naturally stirred M. Schwarz, a passionate student of things Jewish, to further inquiries. The person indicated by his informant could not help him much; he had married an "Old" Christian, and was thus out of touch with his former brethren in faith. However, he did his best to introduce the inquirer to them. "E dos nossos"—"He is one of us," he whispered to them, confidentially. With some difficulty, M. Schwarz began to gain their confidence. They were dubious as to the stranger's claims. They had not heard of any Jews different from themselves. They had no knowledge of the greater Jewish community living outside the bounds of Portugal. Their conceptions were limited to an exiguous body in their own township and the immediate neighbourhood, for whom secrecy was a primary condition of religious existence. The stranger moreover could not recite any of the traditional Portuguese prayers current amongst that and the
sister communities. It was in vain that he tried to point out that the universal Jewish language of prayer was Hebrew, in which the Jews throughout the world carried on their devotions. They had not heard of the language, and doubted its existence. At last an old woman, whom the rest treated with particular deference, asked him sceptically to repeat some prayer in the tongue for
which he claimed such sanctity. His choice was an obvious one. He recited the Jewish confession of faith—the same which Isaac de Castro Tartas had on his lips when he perished at the stake: "Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is One." As he pronounced the name of God—Adonai—the woman covered her eyes with her hands—the traditional formality, intended to shut out all outside distractions during the recital of this verse. When he had finished, she
turned to the bystanders. He is indeed a Jew," she said, authoritatively, "for he knows the name of Adonai." Thus this solitary survival of the old Hebrew tongue, which had been preserved orally throughout the long centuries of subterfuge and persecution, at last brought the remnant of the Marranos into touch with a representative of the outside Jewish world.

Now that he was recognized as a coreligionist, M. Schwarz had no difficulty in being admitted to full confidence. What he discovered was nothing less than amazing. Throughout the period subsequent to the fall of the Inquisition, there had continued to exist in the remoter parts of the northern provinces of Portugal whole colonies of crypto-Jews, absolutely isolated from the general Jewish world, and not even suspecting its existence. Long centuries of persecution had left its mark on their outlook. They could not conceive any form of Judaism except that stunted and furtive one which they followed. They were not conscious of any short-comings or lapses on their part. But, at the same time, their religion in its essentials was unmistakably Jewish—a natural development of that which their ancestors had practiced at the time of the Inquisitional persecutions, an account of which has been given above. They steadfastly denied the Messiahship of Jesus and withheld recognition from the saints of the Roman Catholic Church. They recognized themselves as Jews, or as New Christians. They met together at regular intervals for prayer. They married only among themselves. They observed with the utmost possible fidelity the Sabbath and the major solemnities of Passover and the Day of Atonement, together with the Fast of Esther.

True, the persecution of centuries had left its trace. On Friday night, many of them placed the Sabbath light, which they so religiously kindled, inside a pitcher, safe from prying eyes. The Day of Atonement and Passover were both observed a day or two after their proper date, when the vigilance of their persecutors might be assumed to have been relaxed.

Their prayers, though sadly altered and diminished, were recognizably Jewish in inspiration and in origin. They were in Portuguese—a. large number of them in verse. Nevertheless, the ancient archetypes are in many cases recognizable. One or two words of Hebrew, even, survived— notably, the name Adonai. The formula of benediction, before performing any religious function, was strikingly similar to the traditional one. It ran thus: "Blessed art Thou, my Lord, my Adanai, who hast commanded us with His blessed and holy commandments that we do as our brethren do in the land of Promise." Only the concluding phrase, with its striking testimony to the unity Of Israel and the living influence of Palestine, is not to be found in the traditional Hebrew formula.[4] The prayers were scanty in number, and were seldom written down, being transmitted
from generation to generation by word of mouth. The principal repositories of these as of other traditions were the mothers and the wives. Indeed, on those occasions when meetings were held for prayer, it was generally an old woman who acted as sacerdotisa ("priestess") or spiritual guide of the community.

Among themselves, they continued to maintain feelings of the utmost
solidarity, expressed in mutual charity and characteristically generous help at times of stress: All of this had continued for the past century and a half, absolutely unknown to the Jews of the outside world, who were meanwhile endeavouring to understand how it was that the Marranos had died away with such dramatic suddenness after Pombal's reforms.

What had happened was as a matter of fact by no means difficult to explain. In the principal towns, the main centres of the Inquisitional activity, where surveillance was continual and whence departure from the country was comparatively easy, the persecution had been more or less effective. Almost all the Marrano population had been driven to emigrate, exterminated, or else
forced to conform. Indeed, in the last days of the period of the autos-da-fè, as has been seen, only a small proportion of those who figured had been natives of the capital or the greater cities in the western part of the country. But, in the rural centres, matters were different. The maintenance of some sort of communal life was simpler, and traditions could thus be perpetuated
with greater ease. On the other hand, emigration from the country (for the poorer classes especially) was difficult in the extreme. Hence, crypto-Judaism had here a greater vitality than
in the capital or the other great cities.

[Lusos]

"An auto-da-fé (also auto-de-fé, auto de fe, meaning "act of faith") was the ritual of public penance of condemned heretics and apostates that took place when the Spanish Inquisition or the Portuguese Inquisition had decided their punishment, followed by the execution by the civil authorities of the sentences imposed.

The most extreme punishment imposed on those convicted was execution by burning. In popular usage, the term auto-da-fé, the act of public penance, came to mean the burning at the stake that was held on a separate day."

"Amazingly, a "New Christian" sample from Belmonte, Northern Portugal, plotted closer to other Jewish populations than to Iberians"

Amazingly.They say.
Only for them.

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/26/5b/b1/265bb12f65ef98d3d7ea2c704b2e8a16.jpg

A Monument.So that they wont forget.

[Cristiano viejo]

This is how the crypto-Jewish community of Belmonte was uncovered, as told in the book "A History the Marranos", by the historian Cecil Roth:

This is the most important :cool:

They married only among themselves.

and I insist

But the important thing is check as these Jews did not mix with Iberian population, unlike people (anti-Spanish) think.

[curupira]

This is the tale of the meeting of a Briton (George Burrow) with an Iberian crypto-Jew, as told by him, text quoted by Cecil Roth in his "A History of the Marranos":


George Borrow, the imaginative purveyor of the Bible in Spain, gives an extraordinary account of personal encounter in 1835, during his visit to the Peninsula. Having regard for the exuberant fancy of the author, this was universally regarded as a characteristic piece of romancing. There is perhaps more in it than was at one time thought; and it is worthwhile to cite it at length:

"There was something peculiarly strange about the figure: . . . I see him standing in the moonshine, staring me in the face with his deep calm eyes. At last he said — “Are you then one of us?'

Myself: You say you are wealthy. In what does your wealth consist?

Abarbenel: In gold and silver, and stones of price; for I have inherited all the hoards of my forefathers. The greater part is buried underground; indeed, I have never examined the tenth part of it. I have coins of silver and gold older than the times of Ferdinand the Accursed and Jezebel; I have also large sums employed in usury. We keep ourselves close, however, and pretend to be poor, miserably so; but, on certain occasions, at our festivals, when our gates are barred, and our savage dogs are let loose in the court, we eat our food off services such as the Queen of Spain cannot boast of, and wash our feet in ewers of silver, fashioned and wrought before the Americas were discovered, though our garments are at all times course, and our food for the most part of the plainest description . . .

Myself: Are you known for what you are? Do the authorities molest you?

Abarbenel: People of course suspect me to be what I am; but as I conform outwardly in most respects to their ways, they do not interfere with me. True it is that sometimes, when I enter the church to hear the mass, they glare at me over the left shoulder, as much as to say —'What do you here?' And sometimes they cross themselves as I pass by; but as they go no further, I do not trouble myself on that account . . .

Myself: Do the priests interfere with you?

Abarbenel: They let me alone, especially in our own neighbourhood. Shortly after the death of my father one hot-headed individual endeavoured to do me an evil turn; but I soon requited him causing him to be imprisoned on a charge of blasphemy, and in prison he remained a long time, till he went mad and died.

Myself: Have you a head in Spain, in whom is vested the chief authority?

Abarbenel: Not exactly. There are, however, certain holy families who enjoy much consideration; my own is one of these the chiefest, I may say. My grandsire was a particularly holy man; and I have heard my father say, that one night an archbishop came to his house secretly, merely to have the satisfaction of kissing his head.

Myself: How can that be? What reverence could an archbishop entertain for one like yourself or your grandsire?

Abarbenel: More than you imagine. He was one of us, at least his father was, and he could never forget what he had learned with reverence in his infancy . . . he then returned to his diocese, where he shortly afterwards died, in much renown for sanctity.

Myself: What you say surprises me. Have you reason to suppose that many of you are to be found amongst the priesthood?

Abarbenel: Not to suppose, but to know it. There are many such as I amongst the priesthood, and not amongst the inferior priesthood either; some of the most learned and famed of them in Spain have been of us, or of our blood at least, and many of them at this day think as I do. There is one particular festival of the year at which four dignified ecclesiastics are sure to visit me; and then, when all is made close and secure, and the fitting ceremonies have been gone through, they sit down upon the floor and curse.

Myself: Are you numerous in the large towns?

Abarbenel: By no means; our places of abode are seldom the large towns; we prefer the villages and rarely enter the large towns but on business. Indeed, we are not a numerous people, and there are few provinces of Spain which contain more than twenty families. None of us are poor, and those among us who serve, do so more from choice than necessity, for by serving each other we acquire different trades. Not unfrequently the time of service is that of courtship also, and the servants eventually marry the daughters of the house . . ."

[Lusos]

The negative expression "judiaria" is still used today, even if there are no longer any jews here.

Or per Example;
"Tas a judiar......"

[curupira]

According to a 2001 poll among the people of Majorca, 30% answered they'd never marry a Xueta, and 5% said they did not want to have Xueta friends.


Todo ello, sin embargo, no implica la eliminación completa de conductas de rechazo, como indica una encuesta realizada entre los mallorquines por la Universidad de las Islas Baleares en 2001, en la que un 30% afirmó que no se casaría nunca con un/una chueta y un 5% declaró que no desea ni tener amigos chuetas
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chueta

Pic of a famous Xueta, Miquel Segura (journalist, writer and jeweller), who has returned to Judaism:


Miquel Segura Aguiló (La Puebla, Islas Baleares, 25 de enero de 1945) es un periodista, escritor y joyero español, de origen chueta. Es el padre del diplomático español Jaume Segura.

Nació en La Puebla, en el interior de la isla de Mallorca, en el seno de una ilustre familia de joyeros y plateros pertenecientes a la minoría chueta, un grupo de descendientes de judíos conversos mallorquines que por causa de las persecuciones religiosas y su posterior estigmatización a fines del siglo XVII se vieron obligados a practicar una estricta endogamia, a la vez que conservaron una sólida conciencia colectiva. Periodista autodidacta, ha colaborado desde 1981 en diferentes publicaciones de Baleares, entre ellos Ultima Hora, donde mantiene una columna periódica. También escritor prolífico, mayoritariamente en catalán, cultivó todos los géneros literarios a excepción del teatro.

Siendo consciente de su origen chueta, la aventura literaria de Miquel Segura con los años se profundiza en su identidad primero conversa, y luego judía. Su primer libro de la temática, Memòria xueta (Memoria chueta, de 1994) marcó un antes y un después en el tratamiento de la cuestión chueta en Mallorca, ya que rompió definitivamente con un estigma que la sociedad balear arrastraba desde hace centurias, al ponerla en el centro de la opinión pública. Habitual entrevistado, participante de programas de televisión, y ponente en diversos seminarios internacionales, su caso (y el de muchos otros) ha trascendido fronteras, llegando a oídos del Gran Rabino de Israel.

El 17 de diciembre de 2009 Miquel Segura retorna oficialmente al judaísmo, en una ceremonia efectuada en Nueva York, y adopta el nombre hebreo de Mihael Bar Haim. Es la primera persona de origen chueta que desde los tiempos de la Inquisición se le reconoce su retorno al judaísmo sin pasar por una conversión religiosa.
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miquel_Segura_Aguil%C3%B3

http://i59.tinypic.com/2m6x4pe.jpg

[Cristiano viejo]

Pic of a famous Xueta, Miquel Segura (journalist, writer and jeweller), who has returned to Judaism:


http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miquel_Segura_Aguil%C3%B3

http://i59.tinypic.com/2m6x4pe.jpg
His son Jaume Segura

http://eeas.europa.eu/delegations/el_salvador/images/content/about_us/20131218_jsweb.jpg

[curupira]

A documentary on the Xuetas telling the story of Miquel Segura too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyQYOUDE24w

Two other pics of the Xueta (now returned Jew) Miquel Segura (he could easily pass for a stereotypical Jew, either Sephardic or Ashkenazi):

http://i61.tinypic.com/m91v1z.jpg
http://i57.tinypic.com/352kmeo.jpg

[curupira]

This is a film about Antonio José da Silva, "o Judeu" ("the Jew"). He was born in Rio de Janeiro into a New Christian family. He was later executed by the Inquisition. I wonder where he would plot in a genetic map.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvB2LD9PGjI


António José da Silva Coutinho. (8 May 1705 – 18 October 1739) was a Brazilian dramatist, known as "the Jew" (O Judeu). The Brazilian spelling of his first name is Antônio, António José da Silva in Hebrew אנטוניו ז'וזה דה סילווה.

His parents, João Mendes da Silva and Lourença Coutinho, were descended from Jews who had emigrated to the colony of Brazil to escape the Inquisition, but in 1702 that tribunal began to persecute the Marranos or anyone of Jewish descent in Rio, and in October 1712 Lourença Coutinho became a victim. Her husband and children accompanied her to Portugal, where she figured among the "reconciled" in the auto-da-fé of July 9, 1713, after undergoing the torment only.

Her husband, having then acquired a fixed domicile in Lisbon, settled down to advocacy with success, and he was able to send António to the University of Coimbra, where he matriculated in the faculty of law. In 1726 António was suddenly imprisoned along with his mother on August 8; on the 16th he suffered the first interrogation, and on September 23 he was put to the torment, with the result that three weeks later he could not sign his name. He confessed to having followed the practices of the Mosaic law, and this saved his life.

He went through the great auto-da-fé held on October 23 in the presence of King John V and his court, abjured his errors, and was set at liberty. His mother was only released from prison in October 1729, after she had undergone torture and figured as a penitent in another auto-da-fé.

Meanwhile António had gone back to Coimbra, and finishing his course in 1728–1729 he returned to Lisbon and became associated with his father as an advocate. He found what he believed to be an ignorant and corrupt society ruled by an immoral yet fanatical monarch, who wasted millions on unprofitable buildings though the country was almost without roads and the people had become the most backward in Europe. As his plays show, the spectacle struck António's observation, but he had to criticize with caution.

He produced his first play or opera in 1733, and the next year he married his cousin, D. Leonor Maria de Carvalho, whose parents had been burnt by the Inquisition, while she herself had gone through an auto-da-fé in Spain and been exiled on account of her religion. They had their first daughter in 1734, but the years of their happiness and of Silva's dramatic career were few, for on October 5, 1737 husband and wife were both imprisoned on the charge of "judaizing." A slave of theirs had denounced them to the Holy Office. Though the details of the accusation against them seemed trivial and contradictory, and some of his friends testified about his Catholic piety and observation, António was condemned to death. On October 18, like those who wanted to die in the Catholic faith, he was first strangled and after had his body burnt in an auto-da-fé. His wife, who witnessed his death, did not long survive him.[1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant%C3%B3nio_Jos%C3%A9_da_Silva

[curupira]

This is from a recent genetic study focusing on the crypto-jews from Belmonte and Bragança (among Belmonte crypto-jews haplogroup J is the very predominant male lineage, unlike among the Portuguese population in general):

http://i62.tinypic.com/28c387k.png


The purpose of this review is to summarize and critically revise the existing genetic data concerning the Portuguese Sephardic Jewish population. In this regard, other Sephardic population studies will be reviewed for contextualization. The historical background of the Sephardic Jews, with an emphasis on the Portuguese history, will be addressed. With the exception of the studies on the Chuetas, an isolated Mallorcan community from the Moslem period, 10th to 13th centuries (Santamaría Arández, 1997), currently available genetic studies on the original population from Iberia are restricted to Portugal, namely to Belmonte municipality and Bragança district (Northeast Portugal). Until the decree of expulsion and the establishment of the Inquisition in Portugal during the 15th century, the Portuguese Jewish communities had quite a similar history. From the 15th century on, however, most of the Portuguese Jews were either exiled, or assimilated into the general population with the exception of a few Crypto-Jewish communities. The Crypto-Jewish phenomenon is defined as the secret adherence to Judaism while publicly professing another faith. These communities have kept, for more than 500 years, their hidden religious practices and their cultural identity using complex social strategies. Among these communities, special mention is due to Belmonte, a small town in the center of Portugal and also to several small villages and towns in the Bragança district.

Uniparental genetic markers were typed in both communities (Adams et al., 2008;Nogueiro et al., 2010;Teixeira et al., 2011;Nogueiro et al., 2014), showing genetic profiles and levels of genetic diversity in accordance with their dissimilar recent history compared to the Portuguese general population.

In conclusion, the demographic processes underlying the genetic pool of the Portuguese Crypto-Jews descendants studied so far, are much more complex than would be expected under the classical model of extreme inbreeding and drift, with consequent loss of genetic diversity. The contrasting patterns observed in Bragança community and Belmonte are enough to sustain that whatever the results of future studies, no simple and uniform evolutionary model will accommodate the sharp heterogeneity already observed. Notwithstanding this difference, both groups display a genetic pool clearly showing contributions of European and Near Eastern lineages, in accordance with a significant persistence of a Jewish heritage, translated in a conscience of belonging to a distinctive community. This ancestry was detected within both male and female lineages, indicating that introgression from and admixture with the host population does seem to have been significantly gender biased. Moreover, the high genetic diversity found in Bragança demonstrates that there was neither a low number of founder lineages, nor a significant reduction of effective population size as indeed occurred in Belmonte. It remains to be explained how this resistance to genetic erosion, as expected in endogamous, small sized populations, was achieved, that is to say, what mating strategies were undertaken by these communities which ensured a steady gene flow between them, counteracting the expected inbreeding.

New data from recombining genetic markers in the line of Behar et al. (2010), as well as from classical genealogical studies, will surely contribute decisively to explain how this was achieved. At any rate, the DNA evidence gathered so far adds a new facet to the already recognized astonishing cultural resistance of these communities: not only they have kept a sense of belonging throughout centuries of persecution but they also succeeded in maintaining a genetic heritage of their own.
http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fgene.2015.00012/abstract

[Bell Beaker]

There are somes Jews in Portugal until today. And some Crypto-Jews, especialy politicians and Media guys. The majority of them are Free-Massons.

We must never forget the connection beetween Judaism and Massonry.

[curupira]

Books about it:

"Os judeus secretos em Portugal" ("The secret Jews in Portugal") by Amilcar Paulo:

http://servidormix.com/~redejudi/images/livros/osjudeussecretosemportugal.pdf

"A history of the Marranos" by Cecil Roth:

http://www.redejudiariasportugal.com/images/livros/A%20HISTORY%20OS%20THE%20MARRANOS%20Cecil%20Roth.p df

"História dos cristãos novos portugueses" ("History of the Portuguese New Christians"), by J. Lúcio de Azevedo:

https://ia600500.us.archive.org/21/items/historiadoschris00azev/historiadoschris00azev.pdf

"Centinela contra judíos" ("Watchtower against jews"), by Fray Francisco de Torrejoncillo (a propaganda pamphlet agains new christians, contemporary to that time):
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centinela_contra_jud%C3%ADos

http://historiayverdad.org/Babilonia/Centinela-contra-judios.pdf

[Empecinado]

Xuetas are not crypto-Jews anymore neither identify as Jews ethnically or religiously. They are either Catholic or Atheists, and only a few of them have returned to Judaism.

[Cristiano viejo]

Xuetas are not crypto-Jews anymore neither identify as Jews ethnically or religiously. They are either Catholic or Atheists, and only a few of them have returned to Judaism.
I am not sure about this assumption.

[curupira]

The Xuetas of Palma de Mallorca


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yquS2XDsfVY

[Florstadt]

A very interesting documentary on the "last Marranos", the Xueta from Majorca were discriminated against as late as the XX century:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CpidcjO5uU

In the video above, these two Belmonte crypto-Jews captured my attention, in spite of living in isolation, practicing secret Judaism for almost 5 centuries (!), they still remind me of their Levantine/Near Eastern origins (DNA testing has already found them plotting near Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews):

http://i44.tinypic.com/oh1m5k.png

A Samuel Newhouse look-alike:

http://i42.tinypic.com/5d1kz6.jpg

In modern Mainland Spain, there are no genuine Marranos unified as a community, aside from a small group in Mallorca. These individuals, descendants of Jews who were forced to convert to Christianity during the Inquisition, still face prejudice despite their devout Catholicism. In contrast, a handful of true Marranos persist in the northeastern Portuguese town of Belmonte. Approximately 180 of them are the last remnants of a once-larger community that maintained their Jewish identity through centuries of oppression. Their survival and continued practice of Jewish traditions, such as lighting Sabbath candles and observing Passover, serve as a poignant reminder of the enduring legacy of Spanish Jewish history.

This story is featured in the DVD series "Out of Spain," narrated by former Israeli President Yitzhak Navon, and it is available on Amazon and Netflix.

[vader]

My family (specifically mother’s side) always believed we had some sort of Jewish connection. Seems unlikely though