Historical writer Jon Meacham once said, “The Bible can be both true and inaccurate,” and so is my title question. When Columbus was born, there was no Spain or Italy. Furthermore, if born in Genoa, his name would be Cristoforo Colombo. Columbus only signed his name Christopher Colom, and he spoke fluent Castilian. A proto-Spanish language, along with others, evolved into modern Spanish, and he wrote in Castilian with hints of a Catalan accent. The name Colom is a Catalan word meaning "dove." Odd for an Italian.

Jose Antonio Lorenta, MD, PhD, and Professor of Forensic Medicine, attempted to answer this question that has lingered for centuries. In a 22-year research project to prove whether Columbus was a Spanish Jew, Lorenta used DNA. He wanted to publish it before Columbus Day, but in the rush, he released the paper without peer review. Historians like peer reviews, but geneticists demand them. They need to replicate his findings in a lab. Without review, it is heresy, and to publish it is blasphemy. In contrast, historians interpret the facts and clues to find the most perfect account of the events. Like lawyers, historians build a storyline based on the evidence. Stories, like circumstantial evidence, don’t always stand up in cross-examination. Lorenta concludes from DNA that Columbus was likely from the Mediterranean coast of Spain or the Balearic Islands, 50 miles off the coast, and with a haplogroup shared with Sephardic Jews.

Historians use footnotes and bibliographies; I won’t, and you're welcome. I will italicize when copying almost verbatim. Columbus's documents today include more than 2,500 notes penned in the margins of books he owned; some 80 letters, notes, and memorials; copies of the log from his first New World voyage; and his will. None were written in Ligurian (pre-Italian or Genoese), and the only reference to him reading Italian was an Italian book he read on his second voyage. For fun, I will use a metaphor. If historians were lawyers, they might argue in this way. 

The expert witness testimony of Estelle Irizarry, a professor of linguistics at the University of Georgetown. Her Testimonyand analysis; her analysis of Columbus's language and grammar has led her to the conclusion that Columbus was from the Kingdom of Aragon and that his native tongue was Catalan. He may have written in Castilian, argues Irizarry, but his grammatical errors and use of syntax suggest that it wasn’t his first language.

Another witness, Linguistics Professor Lluís de Yzaguirre, of the Universität Pompeu, states analysisof Columbus's Spanish, finding linguistic patterns that suggest Catalan influence, such as hypercorrections of "b" and "v," as well as "o" and "u". 

Counsel in defense of Genoa as a birthplace cross-examines. Wasn’t Barcelona the capital of Catalonia in the 1400s, and only 510 miles from Genoa by sea, and did they trade? And isn’t Columbus said to have spoken languages like Proto-Italian, Latin, Greek, and Portuguese; could it be possible that he learned Castilian from a Catalan, which would explain the inconsistencies? Could the reason for writing Castilian, not Ligurian, be because he was writing to Spaniards? 

Counsel for a Jewish Spaniard submits 13 letters Columbus sent to his son, Diego, who was born in Portugal, to a noblewoman with connections to Jews. Columbus the navigator was at best an absentee father.

So, wouldn’t Diego's first language be Portuguese? Columbus spoke and wrote Portuguese, yet he wrote to his son in Castilian. Counsel for the Spaniard again calls Dr. Irizarry.

Estelle Irizarry explains that 15th-century Castilian Spanish was the “Yiddish” of Spanish Jewry, known as “Ladino.” Counsel asks, Isn’t Ladino also known as Judaeo-Spanish, Judezmo, or Spaniolit, and in Hebrew script Djudeo-Espanyol? Dr. Irizarry, yes. And she continues that at the top left-hand corner of all but one of the 13 letters written by Columbus to his son Diego contained the handwritten Hebrew letters bet-hei, meaning b’ezrat Hashem (with God’s help). Observant Jews have for centuries customarily added this blessing to their letters. No letters to outsiders bear this mark, and the one letter to Diego in which this was omitted was one meant for King Ferdinand. Opposing counsel has no further questions.

Counsel for the Spaniard asks that the following statements and documents be read into the record. In Simon Wiesenthal’s book, “Sails of Hope,” he argues that Columbus’ voyage was motivated by a desire to find a haven for the Jews in light of their expulsion from Spain.

Carol Delaney, a cultural anthropologist at Stanford University, concludes that Columbus was a deeply religious man whose purpose was to sail to Asia to obtain gold to finance a crusade to take back Jerusalem and rebuild the Jews’ holy Temple. In the 1400s, Jews widely believed that Jerusalem had to be liberated and the Temple rebuilt for the Messiah to come.

The Genoese ambassadors present in Barcelona in 1493 on Columbus' return don't refer to him as a fellow citizen;

In the 16th century, there were no claimants from Genoa for Columbus' fortune (although there was one from Cuccaro, north of Genoa).

Columbus' royal patrons never referred to his nationality, as was done with other foreigners (such as Amerigo Vespucci);

Columbus's first biographer, his son Hernando, indicated that Columbus wanted to leave his origins in obscurity (although the original Spanish version of the biography has been lost, and some historians think the early chapters were written by someone else)

The Article by Dr Gerhard Falk, professor of sociology at Buffalo State College, said that Columbus’s voyages were financed by two Jews, Luis de Santangelo and Gabriel Sanchez.

Opposing counsel wishes to read the following documents into the record. Historian Samuel Eliot Morison, in his book "Admiral of the Ocean Sea", notes that existing legal documents demonstrate the Genoese origin of Columbus. On page 14, Morison writes: The Assereto document, named for the man who in 1904 recognized its importance, involves a 1479 lawsuit over a sugar transaction on the Atlantic Island of Madeira. In it, young Christopher swore that he was a 27-year-old Genoese citizen resident in Portugal and had been hired to represent the Genoese merchants in that transaction.  

In 1502, he wrote from Spain to the directors of Genoa's Bank of San Giorgio, offering an endowment to relieve the city's poor of the tax on food and wine. "Even though my body walks here," he wrote poignantly, "my heart is always there." Christopher Columbus appears to have donated one-tenth of his income from his discovery of the Americas to the Bank of San Giorgio in Genoa for the relief of taxation on food.

In the