He might have had Jewish ancestry but it is clear he was a religious Catholic. In his line of work (seaman) he could easily have moved to another country, yet he chose to stay in Spain – meaning it is very unlike he was a Marano. He went to great efforts to marry “above his station” rather than marrying someone else of Jewish descent (i.e. he made sure his children would be goyim, if in fact he was Jewish). There is really no way to know his ancestry in detail. Given he was something of a greedy imperialist (which is a polite way to say a thief working for government), and had no problem working for a very anti-semitic government even though he had a choice in the matter, I don’t think we’ld really want to claim him.
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