Irarrázabal, Jofré, Echeñique, Edwards: Clearing up doubts about the lists of surnames and the Portuguese-Sephardic origin
The Portuguese law that allows descendants of Sephardic Jews to obtain the nationality of that country has aroused the attention of many people throughout Latin America, with a high volume of applications arriving at the consulates of Portugal.
Public interest has generated various types of press publications, including some that are not entirely reliable. One example is the lists of surnames that some internet portals have associated with access to citizenship.
But, as the Colombian newspaper Semana reports , having one of those surnames doesn't automatically guarantee receiving the document. Nor is there an "official list" of surnames. Obtaining citizenship based on Sephardic origin is more complicated than that.
We wanted to clarify this issue by speaking with Professor Francisco de Segovia, the expert and chief genealogist at AIM Global. He begins by pointing out that while certain surnames like Correa, Acosta, Santos, Silva, or Barbosa may be common in Portugal, “what will truly determine whether a person or family has Sephardic ancestry is rigorous research with documents that support their belonging to a lineage of Jewish converts or New Christians.”
Regarding which families in Chile are more likely to have Sephardic ancestors, Segovia points out that "the families that have the greatest possibility of identifying Sephardic ancestors are those that have been studied genealogically; by this I mean that the probabilities increase even though every person -potentially- could have an ancestor of this origin (in the Iberian Peninsula) as a result of colonization."
The historian adds that “for a long time, interest in genealogy was prominent in elite, noble, or ‘aristocratic’ families. Therefore, in Chile, anyone with surnames from what historian Francisco Antonio Encina called the Castilian-Basque aristocracy could have an ancestor from this culture.”
“While many family names such as Irarrázabal, Puga, Echeñique, Bascuñán, Larraín, Zañartu, Vicuña are of clear Basque or Galician origin, they were formed on the family base of old Spanish conquerors, among whom there were Jewish converts or “new Christians”, such as the Jofré de Loayza, who come from the Montesa (converts from Aragon), or all the descendants of the conqueror Diego García de Cáceres, from a family of new Christians from Plasencia (Extremadura),” explains the professional.
“In this way, several families share ancestry from this root, with surnames such as Errázuriz, Mackenna, Domínguez, Edwards, Bravo, Silva, Guarda, and many more,” De Segovia continues. “It’s important to clarify that this doesn’t necessarily make these Chilean families Jewish (many have a direct link to Basque-Navarrese peoples, for example, or the religion itself, which is another matter), but it does demonstrate that Sephardic ancestry spread quite widely among many families due to early social reproduction from the beginning of the conquest of America,” he concludes.
If you or your family are interested in discovering whether you have a Sephardic Jewish ancestor and using this ancestry to apply for Portuguese citizenship, don't delay and schedule a meeting with our team . At AIM Global, we are committed to conducting a thorough investigation and guiding you through every step of this new path you wish to embark upon. Contact us today!
