Genetic testing carried out by the University of Granada (UGR) forensic team, led by José Antonio Lorente, reveals that Christopher Columbus had “traits consistent with Jewish origin” (found in the Y chromosome of his son Hernando) and that Diego Columbus It was not his brother, but a relative in the fifth or sixth year.
These are the two most relevant conclusions of the documentary “Colón DNA”, broadcast on the occasion of Hispanic Heritage Day by TVE, in which forensic analysis and genetic comparison with samples obtained in different locations were also excluded theories on other origins (Spanish, Galician, Majorcan). or Portuguese), but this still does not allow us to know exactly where he was born or who his relatives are.
Researchers also revealed that the bones of Christopher Columbus buried in Seville Cathedral come from the discoverer of America and were reproduced by different laboratories. These remains, along with those of his son and what turned out to be his distant cousin, formed the basis of research that made it possible to compare the samples with those of other historical figures to confirm or refute the different theories about their origin. . Lorente announced last Thursday that the research would be published in an international scientific journal, when it is possible to assess its true significance.
Why did you hide your identity?
According to the documentary, Columbus’s Jewish origin would explain why he could have hidden his identity, even if the mystery of his origin remains, which forensic doctors place generically in the western Mediterranean, particularly on the coast of the peninsula. and in the Balearic Islands. Francesc Albardaner, former president of the Center d’Etudes Colombins de Barcelona and promoter of the Jewish Christ Columbus theory, appears in the documentary as the defender of the winning thesis and argues that Columbus “was a Sephardic Jew” and that this puts the theory in crisis, widely accepted by historians, according to which he was born in Genoa, since this city had expelled the Jews in the 12th century.
In the documentary it is said that in Genoa the Jews were expelled and could not stay more than a few days in transit, but this only applies to the city.
Arturo Rodriguez
— Historian and former assistant to the director of the Columbus House Museum in Valladolid
Arturo Rodríguez, historian and former deputy director of the Columbus House-Museum in Valladolid, questions this point. “In the documentary it says that in Genoa the Jews were expelled and could not stay more than a few days in transit, but this only applies to the city,” he explains to elDiario.es . “In Savona there was a Jewish community and that is precisely where Lorenzo Galíndez de Carvajal (court clerk) points out that Columbus came from. The testimony of the Order of Santiago goes in the same direction, where Diego Colón of Toledo says that his grandfather “was Admiral Christopher Columbus, a Genoese, and that he was from Savona”.
For Gemma Marfany, professor of genetics at the University of Barcelona (UB), the result leaves everything open, even if it has the courage to rule out genetic theories to which historians gave no credence. “From what they say, the Y chromosome has a haplotype compatible with Sephardic Jewish origin, but they haven’t found their relatives, so it’s a deduction and they don’t have super indications solid,” he emphasizes.
The result leaves everything quite open, they don’t have super solid indications
Gemma Marfany
— Professor of Genetics at the University of Barcelona (UB)
Determining whether someone comes from one city or another based on genetics is, in any case, a very imprecise way, since individuals move from one place to another regardless of their origin. “To cite a famous case, Lamine Yamal is from Esplugues de Llobregat, but what his genetic markers would indicate is an individual with markers typical of North and Central Africa,” explains Rodríguez.
Lots of fanfare, little science
In the documentary, which maintains for an hour and a half a tone more typical of a reality show From a rigorous production, Lorente argues that Columbus probably came from the former territories of the Crown of Aragon and that the fact that he spoke Spanish is used as proof of his Sephardic origin. “The Sephardim spoke the languages of the peninsula and it is very likely that he would have learned Spanish at home,” says Albardaner, who ventures to establish that Columbus was born into a family of silk weavers from Valencia and would have “ Jew by culture, Jew by religion, Jew by nation and above all by heart”, since “he breathes Judaism in his writings”.
Regarding how someone so humble reached the Catholic Monarchs, the authors of the documentary claim that it is because “many Jews and Jewish converts helped him”, such as the Duke of Medinaceli or Luis de Santángel . “All his life he had to pretend that he was a Christian, a Catholic, if only he had been wrong he would have ended up at the stake, but he was protected by kings, and that is why the Inquisition respected him,” Albardaner said.
Only when the genetic data is published in a scientific journal will it be possible to judge with discernment the validity and relevance of these discoveries.
However, many of these conclusions are reached by ignoring and without taking into account the extensive documentary evidence of the Genoese origin of Christopher Columbus and other details that do not completely fit into this theory. According to the experts consulted by this journal, it is only when the genetic data are published in a scientific journal that it will be possible to judge with judgment the validity and relevance of these discoveries and whether they meet the expectations expressed by scientists from the University of Granada and Spanish public television.
