Christopher Columbus kept it a secret that he was Jewish, the documentary reveals

However, Francesc Albardaner, a historian who has written extensively about Columbus’ origins in Catalan-speaking eastern Spain, explained that being Jewish and from Genoa was effectively impossible in the 15th century.

“At that time, Jews could only spend three days at a time in Genoa by law,” Albardaner said.

“At the time of Columbus, around 200,000 Jews lived in Spain. 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, about 40,000, but it must be remembered that Sicily, in the time of Columbus, belonged to the Crown of Aragon”.

Albardaner said his research has shown that Columbus was from a family of Jewish silk spinners from the Valencian Community.

In the same year 1492 that Columbus landed at Guanahani in the Bahamas, the Catholic kings of Spain, Queen Isabel of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, ordered the expulsion of all Jews who did not agree to convert to Christianity

Life of pretense

“Christopher Columbus had to pretend all his life that he was a Roman Catholic Christian. If he had made a mistake, this man would have ended up at the stake,” said Albardaner.

DNA research shows Columbus lied about his family; Diego Columbus was the explorer’s second cousin and not his brother, he told the Spanish court.

A key piece of the puzzle was establishing that the remains said to be those of Columbus preserved in a tomb in Seville Cathedral were really those of the explorer, in the face of the Dominican Republic’s long-standing claim to the site of rest of Columbus. .

Professor Lorente’s team established beyond doubt that the bones in Seville were those of Columbus thanks to a close match with DNA found in the remains of his son, Hernando, kept in the same cathedral.

Speaking about the documentary DNA Columbus, his true origin, Professor Lorente agreed that Columbus was hardly from mainland Italy and said there was no solid evidence that he came from France.

“What do we have left? The Spanish Mediterranean arc, the Balearic Islands and Sicily. But Sicily would also be strange, because if it were, Christopher Columbus would have written with some Italian or Sicilian traits. Therefore, it is most likely that its origin is in the Spanish Mediterranean arc or the Balearic Islands”, said the scientist.