Christopher Columbus kept secret he was Jewish, documentary reveals

DNA analysis of the 15th-century explorer showed his Jewish origin, something he concealed during a time in which Jews were being persecuted

Christopher Columbus was Jewish, DNA experts concluded in a long-awaited investigation into the true origins of one of history’s most famous explorers.
Examinations of the bones of Columbus and of his son, Hernando, showed a Jewish origin, something the explorer concealed during a time in which Jews were being persecuted in Spain and other parts of Europe, researchers said.
“Both in the ‘Y’ chromosome and in the mitochondrial chromosome of Hernando, there are traits compatible with Jewish origins,” Antonio Lorente, professor of legal and forensic medicine at the University of Granada.
The discovery was the culmination of two decades of research led by Prof Lorente, presented in a prime-time Spanish television documentary on Saturday night to coincide with Spain’s national day.
The findings challenge the theory that Columbus was an Italian sailor from Genoa, as textbooks have stated for centuries. They also claim to settle a dispute over Columbus’s final resting place.
Prof Lorente said the DNA showed a “western Mediterranean” origin, but he could not state categorically which country or region.
However, Francesc Albardaner, a historian who has written extensively about Columbus having origins in Catalan-speaking eastern Spain, explained that being Jewish and from Genoa was effectively impossible in the 15th century.
“Jews could only spend three days at a time in Genoa by law at that time,” said Mr Albardaner.
“There were around 200,000 Jews living in Spain in Columbus’ time. In the Italian peninsula, it is estimated that there were only between 10,000 and 15,000. There was a much larger Jewish population in Sicily of around 40,000, but we should remember that Sicily, in Columbus’ time, belonged to the Crown of Aragon.”
Mr Albardaner said his research has shown that Columbus was from a family of Jewish silk spinners from the Valencia region.
In the same year of 1492 that Columbus landed on Guanahani in the Bahamas, Spain’s Catholic monarchs Queen Isabella of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon ordered the expulsion of all Jews who did not agree to convert to Christianity.
“Christopher Columbus had to pretend all his life that he was a Roman Catholic Christian. If he had made one mistake, this man would have ended up on the pyre,” said Mr Albardaner.
The DNA research shows that Columbus lied about his family; Diego Columbus was the explorer’s second cousin and not his brother, as he told the Spanish court.
A key part of the puzzle was to establish that the remains said to be those of Columbus kept in a tomb in Seville Cathedral were really those of the explorer, in the face of a longstanding claim by the Dominican Republic to be the resting place of Columbus.
Prof Lorente’s team established without doubt that the Seville bones were those of Columbus thanks to a close match with the DNA found in the remains of his son, Hernando, kept in the same cathedral.
Speaking on the documentary DNA Columbus – his true origin, Prof Lorente agreed that Columbus was almost certainly not from mainland Italy and said that there was no solid evidence that he had come from France.
“What do we have left? The Spanish Mediterranean arc, the Balearic Islands and Sicily. But Sicily would also be strange, because if so, Christopher Columbus would have written with some Italian or Sicilian features. So it is most likely that his origin is in the Spanish Mediterranean arc or in the Balearic Islands,” the scientist said.