Over the years there have been many controversies on where Cristóbal Colón has come from, either the Italian city of Genoa or from Spain itself. However, this debate has come to an end, thanks to research carried out by the university of Granada.
22 years ago, Jose Antonio Lorente began an investigation to find the origin of Columbus. His team confirmed that the remains buried in Seville Cathedral did in fact belong to the ‘Almirante del Mar Océano’ (Admiral of the Ocean Sea). From this they traced their origin to the Mediterranean coast, at the time under the dominion of Aragon.
After analyzing DNA samples for years, Lorente’s team supported one of the many theories that existed about the origin of Columbus. He was a Sephardic Jew, and his origin was on the coasts of Valencia, Catalonia or the Balearic Islands, therefore contradicting the most accepted theory of his origin being Genoa. This theory is supported by the fact that there was no Jewish community in Genoa at the time. However, Cristopher Columbus hid his Jewish origin in fear that it would be a problem when carrying out his project. This is because in 15th century Castilla, people considered Jews with suspicion.
Another interesting aspect is that in all of Columbus’s letters he always wrote in his mother tongue, not Italian.
To conclude we now know Christopher Columbus is from Spain!
