Who was Columbus?
Many mysteries 500 years after his death: Was he a hero or a brute? Was he really Italian?
October 17, 2006
BY LISA ABEND AND GEOFF PINGREE
MADRID — Genovese nobleman or Catalan pirate? Adventurous explorer or greedy tyrant? What if the Italian gentleman who discovered America was in fact a brutal torturer and slave owner? And what if he wasnt even Italian?
Schoolchildren may learn about a hero who proved the Earth wasnt flat, but Christopher Columbus biography is full of holes. This year, the 500th anniversary of his death, two Spanish scholars are working to find answers.
Jose Antonio Lorente, a University of Granada geneticist, is trying to pin down Columbus origins.
In 1927, a Peruvian historian claimed Columbus was from Catalonia — in Spain — not Genoa, Italy.
Lorente is collecting saliva from people in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, Genoa, Valencia, and the south of France with the last name of Colon, Colom, or Columbo. He is comparing their DNA with that in the bones of Columbus, his brother, and Prince Carlos de Viana to see which population has the most genetic similiarities.
We cant say when well have results, Lorente said, citing technological snags.
Meanwhile, Consuelo Varela, a historian at Spains Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, has probed another question: Why, once he was governor of Hispaniola, did Columbus fall so far from favor that he was arrested and returned to Spain in chains?
The discovery of a transcript of Columbus trial made the answer clear to her: Columbus was a brute. In her book The Fall of Columbus, Varela cites 23 witnesses who testified that he used torture to maintain order.
He was also a strong supporter of slavery, refusing to baptize the indigenous people of Hispaniola so that they could be slaves (Christians could not be enslaved).
Christian Science Monitor
