Well, I watch it and I'm slightly dissatisfied with the info they gave based on a few things.
1. They said that Diego Colon was Christopher's brother. Not true, Diego Colon was one of Columbus's son who ruled the entire hemisphere from the Columbus Alacazar in Santo Domingo. Columbus's brother was Bartolomeo, the founder of SDQ.
2. They probably were using the bones of Diego, who died in Spain and was buried there. His father is probably at the Faro A Colon here in SDQ based on a few possibilities:
(A) Records show that Columbus's brother "Bartolomeo" has been missing from SDQ and it is believe his body was the one transferred to Havana when the French took control of SDQ and then sent to Spain when Americans took control of Cuba.
(B) The priest (I believe it was Billini) while restoring the Cathedral of Santa Maria here in Santo Domingo, they found a sealed chapel where they found an elaborate box with the words in Latin "Here lies the Admiral Christopher Columbus". This happened around the mid to late 1700s, and from that point forward it the dispute has grown. Spain claims they have the right Columbus, SDQ claims that the wrong bones made the journey based on the evidence found by the priest. The truth is that both have a Columbus, the issue is figuring out which one is Christopher.
(C) Also, because the removal of the flesh from the body was a common practice to corpses that used to be kings and queens, it makes more sense that the bones they were looking into were those of Diego. Diego WAS a viceroy of the new world (as was promised to Columbus after his first Voyage by the king and queen of Spain). Also, Diego Columbus lived in Santo Domingo with his wife Maria de Toledo. The interesting thing is that Maria de Toledo was a niece of King Ferdinand of Spain (also known as Charles V). BTW, Calle Las Damas was named after Maria de Toledo and her friends habit of walking up and down that imperial Santo Domingan street every Sunday.
3. They discarted any possibility that his bones might be in Santo Domingo based on the evidence of flesh removal from the bones in Spain. As explained above, they probably were testing Diego's bones.
4. I'll be ready to accept that Columbus was a Spaniard after all, but not until I do more research into this aspect of him. One of the reasons why the program suggest he is from Barcelona and not from Genova is because he always wrote in Spanish. But, of course he was going to write in Spanish! And of course he was going to be considered a Spaniard because much of Italy was under Spanish control at the time! Italians were Spaniards at the time and they had to speak Spanish since it was the lingua Franca in business and trade in those times. In addition to that, what good would it be for Columbus to send a letter in Italian to the Spanish monarchs? Again, this is something that needs to be looked into in much more detail. Also, notice that all of the scientist were Spaniard. They might have a want or desire to make Columbus a Spaniard even if he wasn't. This Columbus deal is very close to the hearts of Spaniards, Italians, and to some extent in the Dominicans.
5. The suggestion that he was a Jew is not very likely in my mind. He might have been a missionary or something, if you notice on his writings you will notice that he does mention God and "the Mission God gave Columbus". I have come to the conclusion after much research that one of Columbus's motives was to spread Christianity into the Holy Land once again. Remember the inquisition against mostly Muslims in Spain was in full force during Columbus's time and as such, it makes sense to assume that Columbus was not very happy with his Arabic neighbors.
Also, the Scientist were not able to get their hands on the bones in Santo Domingo based on the fact that the Dominican authorities don't trust the Spaniard in this one. A debate came up last year with the conclusion that the bones won't be made available to the Spaniards because the test are being done 100% by Spanish scientist. The possibility that they will switch the Dominican bones with the one they currently have if they find that Santo Domingo did had Columbus' bones is too great. The Dominican authorities also wanted to test to be done here on the island, but the Scientist don't want to becuase the proper equipment is found abroad for suchthing. Those are just the rumors, don't really know what happened.
