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The Marranos of Marchena and the Canary Islands, in the genesis of the Sephardic community in London

José Antonio Suárez López

Francisca Lopez, Marchena’s neighbor and her husband Diego Rodriguez Arias, brother of Antonio, the last rabbi who was kept secret in Seville, convicted of the Inquisition of Mexico, were members of the crypto-Jewish merchants and smugglers of Portuguese origin who traded between the Canary Islands, Andalusia, Africa and Europe.

 

FROM MARCHENA TO LONDON

«Throughout London it is known that they are well-known Jews and that they have requested before Cromwell and his council to be part of making a Synagogue offering to give 300,000 pounds,» says Diego Rodriguez Arias, the witness Juan Molina, before the Canary Inquisition. He adds that Diego took his wife «from Marchena to London and they settled there» and the common gossip is that these are all Jews but they hide it by going to «hear mass at the home of the Spanish ambassador and after he left London they have not seen him hear mass anymore».

Rodrigo Ponce de León. Lord of Marchena.

THE JEWS OF MARCHENA

Since 1481 there is evidence of the arrival of Judeo-converts from Seville to Marchena fleeing from the Inquisition, seeking the protection of Rodrigo Ponce de León, Duke of Arcos with documents in which the Inquisition threatens the Lord of Marchena to stop welcoming Jews. In 1495 it was the first campaign of rehabilitation of Judeo-converts in Marchena affecting about 30 people. But not all the Jews of Marchena wanted to convert, others like Mencía Rodríguez had chosen to continue being Jews fleeing to the land of the Moors.

A document from 1525 cites the existence of cemetery or burial of Judeo-converts in Marchena.

That Francisca López lived in Marchena appears in the document of the Process of Faith that she suffered from 1655-57 that says verbatim «neighbor of Marchena and wife of Diego Rodríguez Arias, prosecuted for judaizing» 40-year-old wife of Diego Rodríguez Arias, who «has sailed to the Indies, Angola and elsewhere «so, he was a merchant. «All of the Portuguese nation» refers to the six people he understands from the trial.

DUCAL PALACE OF MARCHENA

Diego Rodriguez Arias was another well-known Marrano in the city of London who «was a native of Marchena» according to Lucien Wolf in his 1910 work «Crypto-Jews in the Canaries». «After living for a few years in Amsterdam he emigrated to London, where he was well known as a Jew. He owned a boat and came to Puerto de la Cruz in January 1653 with a load of wine, where he was arrested after being denounced by a black slave and confined for a short time in the house of his brother-in-law Gonzalo Rodriguez Báez «says Wolf. The Báez family is one of the most studied of crypto-Judaism and another neighbor of Marchena Antonio Fernández Martos, traded with Simón Báez Sevilla, imprisoned by the Inquisition of Mexico.

DENOUNCED BY A BLACK SLAVE

In the London house of Diego Rodrigueez Arias the chickens and birds were taken «to the house of a Portuguese Jew who lived nearby and from there they brought them all with their throats cut» and the knife used in that slaughter was not given any other use, it is saying it was a ritual knife according to La Misketa told the Inquisition of Realejo Tenerife, on November 20, 1655.

That day Diego Rodriguez Arias was denounced before the Inquisition of the Canary Islands by Lorenza Díaz, -Alias ​​La Misketa- 25-year-old black slave girl bought as a gift for her brother-in-law Donzalo Rodríguez Báez, two weeks ago in London to Gaspar Díaz de Misketa who had had to leaving Lisbon in a «secret» and hasty way with all your family. Jews and converts had traditionally been slave traders so it is normal for him to be denounced by his black slave.

 

Oliver Cromweel opened the doors to the return of the Jews to England, while declaring war on Spain.

CROMWELL OPENS THE DOOR TO THE JEWS

Wolf affirms that the data of the marchenero origin of Diego Rodriguez Arias appears in the trial of the case of Antonio Rodríguez Robles, -a Canary merchant who recently declared the war of 1655 Spain-England was imprisoned in London, but he freed himself saying that he was in fact of «Jewish nationality», not Spanish. In this trial Arias was summoned as a witness.

City of La Laguna Tenerife.

Antonio Rodríguez Robles was a nephew of Duarte Henriques Alvares, head of Customs for the Canary Islands, in whose house the Inquisition discovers that Diego Rodriguez Arias and his wife Francisca López had taken refuge when the Inquisition was looking for them. The municipal residents of Tenerife complained about Duarte Henríques Alvarez and other Portuguese merchants that «they have made all of the land and thus have the means to be lords of these ports on these islands» and «they have a league made», and «they earn as much they want. » In other words, they controlled customs and smuggling, according to Luis Alberto Anaya.

«We have had news that they are in the City of La Laguna at the home of Duarte Enríquez Álvarez brother of Beatriz Enriquez married to Enrique Fernández de Ybarra. Said Duarte is said to be treasurer of our Majesty in those islands.» All diligence is requested in the search for these areas and in giving them prison due to their importance and because Ana Rodríguez was «relapsa», that is, she reiterated the crime. Document of the Inquisition signed in Seville in 1654.

Manuel Diaz Soeiros, by the Jewish name Menahem Ben Israel

At the same time, Antonio Rodriguez Robles won his case in the courts, set a precedent, and from then on all the Jews returned to settle in London. In 1657 the London synagogue was consecrated, which in 1701 passed to Bevis Marks, a synagogue that is still preserved, being the oldest and of Spanish-Portuguese origin.

The Hebrew community of Amsterdam collected a large part of the Sephardim fled from Spain where they were able to re-adopt their Jewish identity and achieved economic prosperity.

 

Since 1674 the Spanish Gazette of Amsterdam was published, edited by the Sephardic community, -descendants of those expelled from Spain- founded by David de Castro Tartás that is preserved in the Royal Library of the Netherlands and the Newspaper Library of Madrid.

Diego Rodriguez Arias, also appears quoted in the trial of the Inquisition in Mexico City, where a large part of his family was judged according to the work Sephardim in Northern New Spain by Rodolfo Escobedo.

The Canary Islands was the base of the commercial smuggling that enriched the Portuguese crypto-Jews, between England and Holland, Africa and America, using for this purpose the Canary Islands as a base of operations, reports Luis Alberto Anaya Hernández of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in his work «The relations of the Portuguese Judeo-converts of Holland with those of the Canary Islands and America through their correspondence».

EL APELLIDO DE MARCHENA

Sephardic synagogue in Amsterdam.

The surname «De Marchena has been documented as belonging to Sephardic Jews in Portuguese municipalities such as Castelo Da Vide. Abraham de Marchena is buried in the Sephardic Jewish cemetery in Amsterdam dated 1603. From there the De Marchena family travels to the Dutch island of Curaçao where this surname is among the founders of the oldest Synagogue in America This surname is also preserved in the Jewish cemetery of Coro, Venezuela.

Emmanuel Synagogue of Curaçao, the oldest in America.

The Marchena surname is one of the Sephardic surnames most widespread today in America and especially in the Caribbean. Some families of this surname have recently returned to know the land of their ancestors.

Castelo da Vide, Portugal has documented and published their Sephardic surnames including the Marchena surname.

It is documented that Rodrigo Ponce de León, Lord of Marchena, baptized with the surnames «De León» and Marchena, three Muslims who had helped to deliver the town of Zahara de la Sierra, taken by troops from the town of Marchena in 1483. In addition, Rodrigo de Marchena is among those reconciled by the Inquisition in the 1496 rehabilitation campaign, as published by Juan Gil in his work «Los Conversos y la Inquisicion sevillana».

In Marchena and region there is news of Judeo-converts at least until well into the eighteenth century. In 1714, converts in the Duke’s environment were blamed for the death of a child. At the same time the population register of this period in Marchena shows the existence of a significant Portuguese colony, it even had a Portuguese Duchess, Guadalupe Lancaster Duchess of Aveiro and the duchy inherited her son.

KNOW MORE: Accounts of the assets seized from Diego Rodríguez Arias. Accounts of the assets seized from Diego Rodríguez Arias, reconciled by the Court of the Inquisition of Mexico and managed by the accountant and receiver of the same, Bartolomé Rey and Alarcón. The account was carried out, with charge and data, by the visit’s accountant, Diego Martínez Hidalgo. 1657 ES.28079.AHN / 1.1.11.2.5.2 // INQUISITION, 4813, Exp. 17/1660.