Oliveira (surname)

Oliveira is the Portuguese name for the Olive Tree. 'de Oliveira' literally means 'of the Olive Tree' and/or 'from the Olive Tree' and is a surname found mainly in Brazil and Portugal, and in Spain, Italy and Malta as variants in their respective languages. It's also found, to a much smaller extent, in other former Portuguese and Spanish colonies. 'de Oliveira' is a well known Sephardic surname as well.[1] The surname ‘de Oliveira’ was used prior to the start of the Portuguese Inquisition as a way for Jews to avoid prosecution and under torture to become new Catholics.

Since those people were targeted, and since Portugal had just recently discovered Brazil (1500), many of those people fled to Brazil and other colonies of Portugal. The name Oliveira was democratically used by the Nobility, Landowners, Workers, Old-Christians (Cristãos-Velhos) and some Moors, Jews, New-Christians (Cristãos-Novos) Romani (Ciganos) and in Brazil African Slaves, Amerindians and all the Portuguese speaking People.

Origin of the surname

The surname identifies this family with the Olive Tree and the symbolic characteristics existing on the tree. On the coats of arms where it appears, it is the symbol of peace, of victory, of fame and immortal glory. In archaic Portuguese we find the register of surnames with variations of their spelling, such as Olveira and Ulveira. By the time of King Diniz I, king of Portugal in 1281, Oliveira was already "an old, illustrious and honorable family," as the king's books of Inquisitions show.

‘Oliveira’ is classified in the genealogical-Jewish study as of proven Jewish origin. Before the Inquisition the “de Oliveira” where also in Spain. Before the Islamist conquered the Iberian peninsula it was called ‘ha-Levi’ or ‘ha-Itshari'. ‘De Oliveira’ who settled in Portugal, Galicia and Spain, adopted a translated form of their family name to disguise their Judean origin. And as according to USP historian Anita Novinsky - world authority in Portuguese Inquisition - 1 out of every 3 Portuguese who arrived in Brazil in the first decades of the 16th century after the discovery of Brazil by Pedro Alvares Cabral (he himself a new christian and member of the Order of Christ a Knights Templar order made exclusively of Judeans) were new Christians well over 2 million during the entire 16th century. The ‘de Oliveira’ and their cousins Benveniste and Antunes arrived largely and concentrated mainly in the Northeast Region and Minas Gerais State in southeast Brazil.

The chronicles of the time themselves attest to the presence of Levi, Levy and de Oliveira families in large numbers in colonial Brazil. Rabbi Abraham Benveniste who was born in 1433, in the city of Soria, in the province of Cáceres, in the Kingdom of Spain adopted the 'De Oliveira' family name in Portugal. He was a direct descendant of Rabbi Zerahiá ben-Its'haq ha-Levi and Gerona, who lived in the 12th century and was called ha-Its'hari, or Its'hari, because his genealogy goes to the children of Its'har, who was uncle of the prophet Moshe Rabenu. 'De Oliveira' became internally among Judeans of the Diaspora the family name to be used exclusively by Judeans who could still trace and prove their genealogy to the tribe of Levy and to Judeans could trace and prove they were direct offspring of hebronites so both the priesthood and royal lineage took 'De Oliveira' so they could be later traced. They were also allowed to marry only among Levites and Hebronites themselves following biblical paternal lineage.

It is noteworthy to mention that the offspring of the tribe of Levy and Hebron intentionally settled between Spain Galicia and Portugal for two reasons, first because it is inland and far from the great centers of Spain, where the first killings of Judeans or pogrons began, promoted by fanatical Catholic priests of the Dominican and Carmelite orders, which urged the ignorant old Christian population to kill the New Christian Jews and the unconverted Judeans and also gave them freedom to cross the borders among the different countries accordingly to the laws of each State.

Toponymic

‘Oliveira’ is the Olive Tree that represented the nation of Israel as their Hebronite priestly and royal lineage and also for the olive oil itself that was used by the Levites to light the Menorah. Also the phoneme of the Latin letters, whose sounds represented the sound or phoneme of the Hebrew name Levy in the L-V-Y case. And it crossed their minds that in Semitic languages such as Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, and Amharic of Ethiopia, they do not use vowels in the written form of these languages, but only consonants. It was because of these linguistic mechanisms adopted by the Sephardim that many Judean families managed to escape the attacks of the Inquisition until they at least managed to escape the Iberian Peninsula.

References

“Marranos and the Inquisition on the Gold Route in Minas Gerais, Brazil” in The Jews and the Expansion of Europa to the West, 1450-1800″ New York/Oxford: Bergham Books, Oxford, 2001, pp. 215–241.

Novinsky, Anita, Prisioneiros Brasileiros na Inquisição, Rio de Janeiro: Expressão e Cultura, 2001.

Salvador, J. Gonçalves. Os cristãos-Novos em Minas Gerais durante o Ciclo do Ouro. São Paulo, Pioneira, 1992.

Novinski, Anita. Inquisição, Inventários de Bens Confiscados a Cristãos-Novos no Brasil – século XVIII. Lisboa: Imprensa Nacional/Casa da Moeda, 1978, pp. 223–224.

Inquisição de Lisboa nº 6.515, Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, manuscrito. Veja BROMBERG, Raquel Mizrahi. A Inquisição no Brasil: Um capitão–mór judaisante. São Paulo: Ed. Centro Estudos Judaicos, USP, 1984.

Sobre Manoel Nunes Viana, veja “o Processo de Miguel de Mendonça Valladolid, Inquisição de Lisboa 9.973”. Lisboa, Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, manuscrito e Manuscritos não catalogados “caixa 676, século XVIII, anos 1703 –1710, 29 janeiro 1710 e caixa 83, ano 1719. Lisboa, Arquivo Histórico e Ultramarino, manuscritos.

People with the surname Oliveira

General

Brazilian

Other

Fictional characters
  • Carlos Oliveira, character in Resident Evil 3: Nemesis.

References
  1. Mario J.Saban (1990). Judíos Conversos. Editorial Distal. ISBN 9509495204.
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