515 Years Later, Columbus Controversy Endures

Travel Blog  •  Eva Holland  •  10.11.07 | 6:57 AM ET

imageIn fourteen hundred and ninety-two…the Pinzons sailed the ocean blue? If descendants of Martin and Vicente Pinzon have their way, Christopher Columbus could be sharing some of the credit for his 15th century “discovery” of America. The two brothers piloted the Nina and the Pinta alongside the Santa Maria on the famous voyage, but have been largely forgotten today. “I’d like the name to get recognized,” Bob Pinzon told the AP. “I think Columbus got too much credit.”

While the Pinzons fight for recognition, several Mediterranean countries are still arguing over the origins of the great navigator himself. Though Columbus is generally accepted to have been Genoese, the Catalonians and the Portuguese have also laid claim to him. Now, according to an interesting story in the New York Times, a Spanish geneticist has managed to extract a DNA sample from the bones preserved in Seville, and he hopes to use it to determine the hero’s true identity.

Amy Harmon writes:

A Genoese Cristoforo Colombo almost certainly did exist. Archives record his birth and early life. But there is little to tie that man to the one who crossed the Atlantic in 1492. Snippets from Columbus’s life point all around the southern European coast. He kept books in Catalan and his handwriting has, according to some, a Catalonian flair. He married a Portuguese noblewoman. He wrote in Castilian. He decorated his letters with a Hebrew cartouche.

Since it seems now that the best bet for deducing Columbus’s true hometown is to look for a genetic match in places where he might have lived, hundreds of Spaniards, Italians, and even a few Frenchmen have happily swabbed their cheeks to supply cells for comparison.

Tests are being done on men with the surnames Colom and Colombo but if, as some academics believe, Columbus was an adopted name, then no true descendant is likely to be found. And even if a match is made, there remains the distinct possibility that the family has migrated at some point over the last 500 years.

Commentators like Noam Chomsky (who has been known to compare Columbus to Hitler) must be scratching their heads at the scramble to lay claim to such a controversial figure. But whether hero or villain, Columbus certainly made a singular impact on the history of the Atlantic world that cannot be denied by anyone—except, perhaps, the Pinzon family.

Related on World Hum:
* Captain Cook Tops Wanderlust’s List of Greatest Travelers of All Time
* A Brief History of Adventure Travel

Painting of Christopher Columbus by Alejo Fernández.

Tags: Adventure Travel, Europe, Italy, Spain, North America, United States

Eva Holland is co-editor of World Hum. She is a former associate editor at Up Here and Up Here Business magazines, and a contributor to Vela. She's based in Canada's Yukon territory.


2 Comments for 515 Years Later, Columbus Controversy Endures

Manuel Rosa 10.11.07 | 7:26 PM ET

Dear Amy Harmon,
After our communication, I was eager to read your article on Columbus and the struggle historians are involved in to identify his true lineage and nationality.
I read the article “Seeking Columbus’s Origins, With a Swab” with interest hoping to learn new facts and to locate some bit of our long conversations and of the facts I passed on to you.

As you recall you contacted me requesting my assistance because Prof. José Lorente told you about my involvement with the DNA studies at the University of Granada.
Being the only historian ever to locate a documentrelated to Columbus’s wife in Portugal, the only Historian working with the Portuguese DNA and the only to have proven that the Last Will of Columbus was falsified 67 years after his death, I felt there was some newsworthiness to my work that would appear in your article.

But there was not a single mention of my work in your article, or should I say there was a lot of mentioning of my work with the DNA (His Royal Highness the Duke of Bragança and His Lordship the Count of Ribeira Grande but not linked to my name and my investigation nor to my book, being I the reason they are involved in this DNA study in the first place!).
I found it appalling that you quote Peter Dickson, who has never investigated anything beyond a few tidbits of Columbus’s life and who is not involved with any DNA studies but did not mention me and my work nor of my assistance to you. Even my Polish Prince was mentioned and the Count of Ribeira Grande quoted. I fail to understand why my work which is being praised by the scientific community and is being shown on an upcoming Discovery Channel Documentary, was not mentioned.
I was able to get to where I did by being able to read, writeand speak Portuguese, Spanish, English, Italian, French and by digging deep into the genealogy this is why the DNA is so important because it will resolve this fairytale history once and for all.
I can only hope that you did not mention me or my investigation because you are working on another article solely to mention my work.

Best Regards,
___________________________
Manuel Rosa - Columbus Historian
http://www.UnmaskingColumbus.com

Jorge A. De la Torre Ruiz 04.25.08 | 6:15 PM ET

I came to life in Puerto Rico in 1944.Six years later I started my first grade education.Ironically,United States was in a “conflict”(war) with Korea and at the same time,accepting Puerto Rico

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