05/09/2026
Why did Mallorca’s descendants of Jews keep marrying each other for hundreds of years?
👇 Comment MALLORCA and I’ll send you my free Mallorca guide.
Under the watchful eyes of the Mallorcan Inquisition, marriage wasn’t simply about love.
Many so-called “Old Christians” did not want their children marrying “New Christians” — descendants of Jews who had converted to Christianity — because Jewish ancestry carried a powerful social stigma.
But the New Christians had a very different reason for avoiding Old Christians.
Some were secretly maintaining Jewish practices.
And bringing an Old Christian into the family could mean bringing someone into your home who might see something suspicious — a dietary custom, a ritual, a practice — and report it to the Inquisition.
The consequences could be devastating.
So over generations, these families increasingly married within their own community.
That isolation helped create one of the most extraordinary stories in Jewish history: Mallorca’s Xuetes, a distinct group of descendants of forcibly converted Jews who maintained a separate identity for centuries.
In Palma this week? DM me and I’ll sort your guide.
Had you ever thought about how the Inquisition could affect something as personal as who you married?
