Rediscovering Columbus

IN A SCENE straight out of the television show “CSI,” Spanish forensic scientists spent the first few months of this year taking DNA samples from citizens of the Catalan region of Spain and southern France, seeking to answer one of history’s greatest unsolved mysteries: determining the true identity of Christopher Columbus.

The investigation is being led by Dr. Jose Antonio Lorente, a former instructor at the FBI academy whose work has been instrumental in identifying victims of Spanish Civil War atrocities. Saturday -- when Lorente is scheduled to present his findings -- marks the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ death, adding a ceremonial aspect to the inquiry.

Lorente exhumed Columbus’ remains in 2003 to take DNA samples of the explorer and then compare them to those of his brother Diego and his illegitimate son, Fernando, to establish a common genetic map. The next step was gathering saliva samples, looking for the matching mitochondrial evidence that will pinpoint Columbus’ true ancestry.

It’s commonly held that the explorer was an Italian who moved to Portugal and then Spain. But many experts suggest he was instead a Catalan nobleman who hid his true identity, or the illegitimate son of a Majorcan prince, or even a Jew who spent his life masking his true identity. Birth records indicate he was born in Genoa sometime during the fall of 1451. Skeptics, however, believe those records were fabricated by zealous city fathers.

This much is sure: Columbus had red hair, a face covered in freckles and stood about 6 feet tall, making him a giant in his day. He was a widower and the father of two sons who sailed four times to the New World between 1492 and 1504, charting and naming almost all of the Caribbean islands in the process. He discovered South America in 1498; he did not set foot on the North American landmass until 1502. On his fourth voyage, a journey of redemption that he called “El Alto Viaje” (the High Voyage) because he successfully led his men through a biblical litany of disasters, he finally gave up his dream of finding a westward aquatic passage from Europe to Asia. Ironically, the spot where he made that decision is now the eastern mouth of the Panama Canal, which linksthe Atlantic and Pacific.

Columbus traveled as much in death as in life. His body originally was buried in Valladolid, Spain, the city where he died and the same city where Lorente will release his DNA findings.

Columbus’ body was later moved to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, then Cuba, then back to Spain, to Seville. The Dominican Republic claims that Columbus’ body never left that island nation, and it has built a great lighthouse tomb to house his remains. Lorente’s DNA samples are expected to prove where they truly reside, though even then, both the Dominican Republic and Spain may be right: Columbus’ bones could have been divided into two boxes by some sentimental Dominican caretaker, ensuring that at least part of the explorer would never leave the city that he founded, governed and named for his father.

Of course, the fact remains that Columbus wasn’t the first to step on what became American soil. The Irish, Vikings and maybe even the Chinese got here earlier. But his was the arrival that changed history because he came to the New World and stayed, and he encouraged others to do the same. For five centuries, people have done just that. Take a walk down the streets of New York or Los Angeles. Look at the sea of faces from around the world and know that Columbus played a part in all their lives -- every single one.

World history is the saga of one civilization interacting with another, and a cataloging of the results. When Lorente releases his findings, we will know just a little bit more about one of the Americas’ greatest immigrants. Let that be an occasion to reflect on the life of a charismatic and passionate man who chose to live boldly rather than settle for mediocrity -- as well as those new explorers who, via plywood rafts, tattered shoes slapping Arizona sands or dark freight containers, follow in his footsteps.