Columbus a Spaniard and a Jew

Description

Some twelve or fifteen years ago, a Spanish scholar, Don Garcia de la Riega, a principal citizen of Pontevedra in Galicia, whose name has been given to one of the streets of that town, discovered from the local archives that in the fifteenth century a family was established there of the name of Colon, several members of which bore the same forenames as are to be found among the Colombos of Genoa, the kinsmen of Christopher Columbus. In 1434 and in 1437, there was at Pontevedra a Domingo Colon; in 1438 a Bartolome Colon; in 1496 a Cristobo Colon; in 1434 a Blanca Colon. Now, Domenico was the name of the father of the discoverer of America, who had a younger brother called Bartolomeo, and a sister called Bianchinetta. Furthermore, Señor de la Riega found out that during the same period there was at Pontevedra a Fonterossa family who had relations with the Colons, and who were Jews, if we are to judge by their Biblical forenames. Struck by these interesting coincidences, he asked himself if this Domingo Colon of Pontevedra might not possibly be the father of Christopher Columbus, and if Christopher himself, about whose birthplace there has been so much discussion, might not have been born in Galicia, instead of in Genoa, as everyone has come to suppose; and might it not also be that the Discoverer's mother, whose name of Susanna is Jewish and whose family name of Fontenarossa closely resembles that of the Jewish family of Fonterossa of Pontevedra, was herself of that same family? Columbus a Spaniard and a Jew