That Christopher Columbus was Galician, specifically from Poio (Pontevedra), is a "serious and consolidated" theory that, over the years, has been endorsed with "a lot of documentation", according to the president of the Colón Gallego association, Edward Stephen.
"It has been proven that he can be Galician because the documentation that exists is overwhelming," he who is one of the main defenders of the Galician origin of the historic Spanish conqueror has argued once again before the press. "There is more than reliable evidence," he insists.
Thus, among them, it stands out that Pontevedra "is the only city in the world" where there are papers that, since before the discovery of America, reveal records of the Columbus family, whose paternal and maternal surnames were transmitted for generations.
To these indications, experts add that Columbus wrote numerous annotations and letters in Galician or that many of the names of places that were discovered on that expedition correspond to toponyms on the coast of Galicia.
"We are closer than ever," says Esteban, to refuting the rest of the theories that suggest that the discoverer of America could have been born in Genoa (Italy), Barcelona or Mallorca.
A fundamental step in this direction is being taken at two points in the province of Pontevedra, San Salvador (Poio) and Sobrán (Vilagarcía de Arousa). In both, the researchers look for DNA that can be compared with the remains of the discoverer, his son and his brother.
It is the final phase of an investigation that began twenty years ago by the Department of Legal and Forensic Medicine of the University of Granada, whose experts consider that this genetic analysis is the key to completing this puzzle.
In the old atrium of San Salvador de Poio, according to archaeologist Mateo Fontán, director of the excavation, an area of about four square meters is being exhumed in which, according to previous studies, possible ancestors of the discoverer of America would be buried.
"We are trying to extract bones that will serve to analyze the genetic samples that the Granada laboratory already has," explains the archaeologist, who advances that in the first days of work human remains have already appeared that will be "duly collated."
Some thirty kilometers from this point, in the church of San Martiño de Sobrán, in Vilagarcía, a funerary sarcophagus of the end of the XV century will be opened. Xohan Mariño de Soutomaior is buried there, a religious who, according to certain investigations, would be related to Colón.
And it is that, according to Antonio Castro, responsible for this second excavation, a "detour" in the line of investigation of the Galician Columbus maintains that the discoverer belonged to a family of nobles, the Soutomaior, "contemporaneous at the time of the discovery".
The tasks to find DNA remains, in any case, will not be easy, according to those responsible for this work, which will take place over the next two weeks.
The exhumations, although they are well documented, are done "by esteem" and in the open. In addition, the climatic conditions of Galicia and the fact that, at that time, the burials were rudimentary, complicate the search for genetic material.
"Hopefully this will serve to shed light once and for all on the origin of Columbus," says Regis Francisco López, director of the documentary "Colón ADN: su Verdadero Origen", which is documenting all the work that is being carried out in Galicia.
He assures that this is being an "important day" for the history of Galicia and Spain, understanding that "it is possible that the results obtained will clarify its origin".
Although for him, the "sturdiest" theory in which the birth of Columbus is located in Galician lands, he trusts that the bones found in these exhumations contain viable genetic material that, crossed with the DNA of Columbus and his direct relatives, "we give good news."
