The "lineage of the Mérida family": the beginning and the end of their social promotion in La Alpujarra

Abstract

The passage of time had almost erased from La Alpujarra the memory of one of its main families, the Meridas, which despite its dark origins as settlers were able to become one of the leading families in the region. The in-depth analysis of the lineage from the sixteenth to the twentieth century will allow us to understand the family's origins, the social rise of some of its branches and its extinction in La Alpujarra.