Who Was Columbus?

[mitsuki lover]

Columbus Day is coming up again and it seems that there still remains a question has to who Christopher Columbus actually was.Was he the Genoan
weaver turned navigator and map maker that history as taught us for
centuries,or was he,as some people speculate and claim a Spanish noble who hid his identity because he was disgraced,or was he perhaps a Jew?
These questions and more seem to come up every time Columbus(if that was his real name,some think it wasn't)comes up.
So what do you all think?

[EricTheFred]

As I understand it, the alternate origin that gets the most traction with legit historians is the theory that he was a Catalan noble with a history of piracy, and had some cast-iron guts walking into the Spanish court asking for money. (Of course, he had some cast-iron guts talking off in a westerly direction into the Atlantic, anyway.)

There is apparently also distinctly thin evidence for old Chris being Genoese. The fact that his only writings are either in Latin or Spanish with a number of Catalan words thrown in, with nothing in Italian, doesn't help.

Still, I'm not an expert, just a guy who has seen a few documentaries on the History Channel, parroting back what he learned.

[mitsuki lover]

Ditto here.Though I do find the entire thing rather interesting as he seems to have been vague about his background.