‘No one talked about it’: persecution of Mallorca’s Jews finally acknowledged

Carrer d'Argentería in Palma where many xuetes lived and worked. There is little trace of them now among the sushi bars and souvenir shops in what was the Jewish quarter of Palma. Photograph: Stephen Burgen/The Guardian

Growing up on Mallorca, Miquel Segura Aguiló, 78, felt like he was living in a “ghetto without walls” but could never understand why. “We knew we were different from everyone else but we didn’t know why,” he said. “When I asked my father, he was evasive. He never wanted to talk about it.”

The family were xuetes – one of Spain’s least-known Jewish communities – whose discrimination was in September formally acknowledged by the regional parliament of the Balearic Islands after centuries of persecution, disdain, shame and silence.