Was Miguel de Cervantes Jewish?

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, better known to the world as simply Cervantes, is the premier representative of Spanish literature with his epoch-making 'Don Quixote'. As such it is thus of little surprise that, like figures as wide ranging as Achilles and Christopher Columbus, there have been various claims that he was jewish or had jewish ancestry.

Now I will not here concern myself with the many comments that Cervantes made about jews in his literary work as I will cover these in a separate article. It is worth noting however that Cervantes has often been accused of racism and anti-Semitism over the years on the strength of this multitude of derogatory commentary about jews and Muslims that veritably festoon his works. (1)

Cervantes' racial/religious origins are often debated, but the essential details of the family tree are widely attested in the literature and accepted as genuine. Cervantes was born the university town of Alcala de Henares, near Madrid, in 1547 and probably on the 29th September (St. Michael's day after which he was probably named). (2)

The child was then baptised in the church of Santa Maria la Mayor on 9th October, a Sunday, of the same year. (3) His father was Rodrigo de Cervantes, a surgeon, who had graduated from the university of Alcala. (4) His mother was Leonor de Cortinas, a young girl born in Barajas near Madrid, who is oft claimed to be from the Spanish gentry (i.e., a hidalgo). (5) Both the Cervantes and Cortinas families are known to have been in a poor financial health. (6)

So far so good; we however know relatively little of the Cortinas family other than that Cervantes' great-grandfather (his mother's grandfather) was a magistrate who came from prosperous landowning stock in the village of Arganda in Castile. (7) There is however no contention that, from what we know, the Cortinas family had any kind of jewish ancestry, because there simply isn't enough evidence to make any kind of case for such a conclusion.

We also have good evidence that in the family were practicing Christians as they are recorded to have donated numerous times, including a particularly expensive chalice in 1485, to the local church. (8)

Therefore we must assume that the Cortinas family was 'Old Christian' (i.e. ,having no former jews or Muslims in the family tree) not 'New Christian' (i.e., having former jews and/or Muslims in the family tree).

It is Cervantes' paternal ancestry however where the claims of jewishness occur and the evidence presented for such a conclusion is garnered.

Cervantes' father Rodrigo was the son of Juan de Cervantes (Cervantes' grandfather) who was awarded a degree in law from the prestigious university of Salamanca and became, after a period of time as a magistrate, a judge of confiscated property for the Spanish Inquisition in Cordoba. (9)

Juan's father (Cervantes' great grandfather) was a cloth merchant in Cordoba. (10) The problem, and the probable origin of the 'jewish ancestry' theory, is, as Bryon states, 'Cervantes' grandfather was in a converso's trade in a convert's town.' (11)

Essentially Cervantes' paternal great grandfather was in a trade dominated by jewish converts to Christianity in a city that had only relatively recently converted from Islam to Christianity. The problem with this however is that it is precisely what the statement suggests: an assumption without evidence. Not all cloth merchants in Cordoba were jewish - although many were - and nor were those who weren't necessarily Islamic.

It is circumstantial evidence and even that is stretching the definition of circumstantial evidence rather thinly.

Upon this assumption proponents then propound a series of claims regarding what they judge to be other unusual aspects of the Cervantes family that they believe could only mean they are being shunned socially by the 'Old Christian' families, because their status as 'Old Christian' gentry (i.e., their hidalgo) was not believed or they were under suspicion of being 'New Christians'.

Among these claims are that because the women of the Cervantes family got pregnant (often exaggerated to suggest they were often courted), but were not married off to their lovers then their 'Old Christian' pedigree had to be suspect. (12)

Now this is easily dealt with by pointing out that there is no reason to believe, or even assume, that this peculiarity was anything to do with any doubt about the Cervantes family's 'Old Christian' pedigree. That it was unusual is something we do not know either.

In fact the case of Cervantes' aunt Maria, the sister of his father Rodrigo, who is numbered as one these ladies who got pregnant and weren't married is instructive. Maria was seduced and impregnated by the half-gypsy bastard son of the powerful Duke of Infantado (who employed Cervantes' grandfather Juan). (13)

Predictably he didn't marry her, but rather the Duke simply bought off the Cervantes family on behalf of his son. The simple fact is that the Duke's son probably had no intention of marrying Maria no matter whether she was from 'Old Christian' or 'New Christian' ancestry.

After all why would the bastard son of a Duke marry the penniless daughter of a lawyer in his father's employ?

He didn't have to: so why would he?

It is far more reasonable to suggest that the fact that the Cervantes family was in dire financial situation for the entire time period (before Cervantes himself was born through to when he was a successful author) (14) and as such their lack of ability to provide a dowry was the reason they had sexual relations, but yet couldn't close the marriage contracts that these encounters could potentially bring.

Another is that the very surname of Don Quixote 'La Mancha', which means 'the taint' and is held to be a reference to Cervantes' own 'tainted' bloodline. (15)

This however again is sheer speculation as, for example, translators of Cervantes like John Ormsby, while not doubting the translation as being 'the taint', pointed to this as a geographic reference to the bleak and barren nature of the country that Cervantes came from (for example his home town of Alcala de Henares was a taint on the landscape) did not see any reference what-so-ever to his ancestry in it.

We don't know what Cervantes meant by 'the taint', but we simply can't read it as any kind of evidence of his being of 'New Christian' ancestry.

That is simply wishful thinking.

The other evidence used is just as threadbare as these two claims, but it is worth coming back to the point about Cervantes' paternal grandfather being a cloth merchant in Cordoba. That this forms the centre of the assumption of Cervantes' jewish origins is clear in that no one seems to have stopped and thought that 'New Christians' could have and/or jewish or Muslim ancestry.

The Cervantes family was from Corboda - a formerly Muslim city and the jewel in the crown of Islamic Spain - so why not suppose that Cervantes had ancestors who were Muslims not jews?

The reason is simple; Cervantes' great grandfather was a cloth merchant and as a trade in which jews were heavily represented. Biographers have simply jumped on this assumed potential jewishness without considering the dare I say it more sensible conclusion - if we credit the evidence presented for a moment - based on the city he ostensibly came from rather than the trade that his great grandfather happened to be in at the time?

Illogical: isn't it?

The evidence presented could mean just as easily that Cervantes had Islamic rather than jewish ancestors, but yet we only hear about the possibility that they might have been jewish. As McKendrick put it in a slightly different context: 'wishful thinking is common in the discussion of Cervantes' ancestry.' (16)

This is also demonstrated rather pointedly in Byron's discussion of the hidalgo of the Cervantes family when he states:

'The very scarcity of authentic records prods doubt about the solidity of the family's hidalgo and Old Christian identity; aristocracy when it truly existed was usually traceable; blood purity, in families with pasts to hide, usually was not.' (17)

While I concur wholeheartedly with Byron's point; he takes his conclusion way beyond the evidence.

There are multiple reasons why the Cervantes family's hidalgo may have either not been real (for example they were simply a wealthy merchant family who had no aristocratic pedigree at all, but merely affected such) or that - coming back to my previous point - even if they were 'New Christians' they were more likely of part-Islamic than jewish ancestry.

This is reinforced by Byron's later point that the Cervantes family hidalgo was merely a matter of repute as was demonstrated when Rodrigo - Cervantes' father - was in prison for debt. Cervantes' grandfather Juan collected references to the family hidalgo from Alcala de Henares, Madrid and Guadalajara, but not from Cordoba. (18)

All the testimonials stated, some more explicitly than others, that the Cervantes family had been held to be gentlemen (i.e., minor aristocracy/gentry) due to the clothes they wore and their style of living. (19)

In other words: no one in Alcala de Henares, Madrid and Guadalajara knew if they were really gentry or not, but that - as before stated - has no actual meaning in the context of the argument, because there is no reason to assume that the Cervantes family were 'New Christians' and even if they were 'New Christians' that this was because they had jewish ancestors.

The sheer intellectual mendacity of the claim is obvious from the fact that proponents of this thesis jump from the doubtful status of the Cervantes family as minor aristocracy/gentry right through many other possible reasons to the family being 'New Christians' then they further jump once again without evidence to the conclusions that they were 'New Christians' of jewish ancestry.

Then, of course, proponents work backwards on this assumption to flesh out their case and come up with such hilarious claims as Cervantes was attacking anti-Muslim and anti-jewish arguments in his novels by allegedly 'satirizing' them. (20) However this similarly ignores the hypersensitivity to criticism displayed by the Spanish authorities and if the Cervantes was really of 'New Christian' origin; then the Spanish Inquisition would have almost certainly dragged Cervantes in for an interrogation concerning his potentially heretical opinions.

It also assumes that Cervantes didn't believe what he wrote, which is a rather difficult thing to take seriously let alone credit.

It is confirmation and selection bias at its best: is it not?

The simple conclusion is that there is no actual evidence, and quite a lot of evidence against, the claim that Cervantes had some jewish ancestry. (21) Even Byron, who avidly argued for Cervantes being jewish, had to admit that there was no actual evidence of such and that his argument was essentially speculative in nature. (22)

That is all the claim of that Cervantes had jewish ancestry is: pure speculation.

Nothing more, nothing less.

References

(1) William Byron, 1978, 'Cervantes: A Biography', 1st Edition, Cassell: London, p. 26

(2) Manuel Duran, 1974, 'Cervantes', 1st Edition, Twayne: New York, p. 21; Richard Predmore, 1973, 'Cervantes', 1st Edition, Thames and Hudson: London, p. 23; Jean Caravaggio, J. Jones (Trans.), 1986, 'Cervantes', 1st Edition, W. W. Norton: New York, pp. 20-25

(3) Duran , Op. Cit., p. 21

(4) Ibid.

(5) Ibid.

(6) Ibid.

(7) Melveena McKendrick, 1980, 'Cervantes', 1st Edition, Little, Brown and Company: Boston, p. 13; Donald McCrory, 2002, 'No Ordinary Man: The Life and Times of Miguel de Cervantes', 1st Edition, Peter Owen: London, p. 19

(8) Ibid.

(9) McKendrick, Op. Cit., p. 13

(10) Ibid.; Predmore, Op. Cit., p. 23

(11) Byron, Op. Cit., p. 24

(12) Caravaggio, Op. Cit., pp. 18-19

(13) McKendrick, Op. Cit., pp. 14-16

(14) Duran, Op. Cit., p. 21

(15) Caravaggio, Op. Cit., p. 18

(16) McKendrick, Op. Cit., p. 13

(17) Byron, Op. Cit., p. 24

(18) Ibid., pp. 24-25

(19) Ibid., p. 25

(20) Caravaggio, Op. Cit., p. 19

(21) McCrory, Op. Cit., p. 20

(22) Byron, Op. Cit., p. 24