Identity, mixed unions and endogamy of the Moriscos: the assimilation of the new converts revisited

Abstract

Recently, new testimonies and analyses have come to light calling into question historians’ long-held and nearly unanimous assumption that the Morisco community was decidedly endogamous. The aim of the present study is to examine different cases and texts indicating that mixed unions between Moriscos and Old Christians may have been more frequent, more desired (despite evident geographical and social differences), and more widespread than previously assumed. These unions created certain social groups in which traditionally accepted religious boundaries became blurred. On the other hand, the Christian authorities afforded this type of mixed unions an importance that far outweighs the scant attention paid to them in the literature. Such marriages were supported and promoted by the monarchy throughout the sixteenth century, and the expulsion orders from the early seventeenth century always provided for exceptions arising from mixed unions and their descendants. These data indicate a social reality which may have been more significant and influential at the local and regional level than has previously been assumed.