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What was Miguel de Cervantes’s family background?

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Engraving of Miguel de Cervantes, shown with a mustache and beard, wearing a ruffled collar and cloak, based on works by Gregorio Ferro and Fernando Selma. — Miguel de Cervantes Miguel de Cervantes, engraving by E. Mackenzie after Gregorio Ferro and Fernando Selma; from *The Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography* (1863).

Miguel de Cervantes was the fourth of seven children born into a family of the minor gentry that had experienced a decline in social and economic status. His father worked as a barber-surgeon, a profession that involved setting bones, performing bloodlettings, and attending to various minor medical needs. Due to his father's occupation, the family frequently moved between different towns during his youth. Additionally, it has been suggested that the family may have been converso, meaning they were of Jewish descent.12