Eduardo Esteban is a researcher and promoter of Spanish culture. As head of the Asociación Cristóbal Colón Gallego (Galician Christopher Columbus Association) in Galicia, he advocates the theory that the navigator and discoverer of the New World was of Spanish, not Genoese, origin. His work has focused on bringing this message to various academic and educational institutions.

Esteban notes that he comes from a scientific background and operates from a scientific perspective. “Everything must follow a sequence of understandable elements,” he says. Yet, he also upholds the value of oral tradition — specifically that of the Pontevedra region, “where the belief that the Discoverer was born there has persisted uninterrupted since the 15th century.”

We spoke with Esteban — on the 534th anniversary of the discovery of the Americas — about the importance of Hispanidad (Hispanic heritage) in the 250-year history of the United States, and about Columbus, who has become a target of the radical Left and its “decolonial” narrative.

Christopher Columbus: Genoese or Galician?

I think we need to clarify that we are referring to two different figures.

Let us acknowledge the existence of a Cristoforo Columbus or Christophorus Columbo (son of Domenico/Dominicus) — a wine merchant or wool weaver born in the State of Genoa. He is frequently confused with Cristóbal Colón — the person who signed the Capitulations of Santa Fe before the Catholic Monarchs. Only the latter is the true navigator whose trail we should follow. Interestingly, as early as 1928, the Spanish newspaper ABC published the verdict of a worldwide contest organized to determine whether they were the same person, and the result left no room for doubt: they were different individuals.

In Galicia — specifically in the Pontevedra region — there are numerous notarial documents from the years preceding the Discovery that record the surnames “Colón” and “de Colón” (both forms used by the Admiral). This documentation has been presented at International Congresses of Paper Historians.

Many of these individuals named Colón bore Jewish first names. This suggests they belonged to a family that had arrived from other parts of Spain to escape the religious persecution of the era. It was in Pontevedra that Christopher was born and raised in strict Catholicism — which explains his deep religiosity and his knowledge of the Old Testament.

We must not forget that he did not speak Ligurian or Genoese. However, the Galician language of that time does retain many words, turns of phrase, and expressions from that period.

Radical left-wing activists in the United States have promoted an image of Columbus as the man who brought imperialist “oppression” to the New World. Is this view accurate?

Not at all — it’s completely false, as the narrative is reductionist, anachronistic, and politically motivated.

It is reductionist because, prior to the arrival of the Spanish, the New World was already home to highly oppressive, expansionist empires — such as the Aztec and the Inca. These empires subjugated neighboring peoples through conquest, the exaction of crushing tributes, and — in the case of Mesoamerica — large-scale human sacrifice. In fact, the conquest of Tenochtitlan was made possible by an alliance with thousands of indigenous people (such as the Tlaxcalans) who saw the Spaniards as an opportunity to free themselves from the Aztec yoke.

Furthermore, I maintain that this view is anachronistic, due to the conceptual fallacy of judging 15th century events by 21st century ethical, moral, and legal standards.

I also maintain that it is politically motivated, as using the figure of Columbus as a symbol of “absolute evil” serves to delegitimize the very foundations of Western civilization (the free market, the nation-state concept, and our own social culture).

Columbus was a man of the late 15th century. He must be understood within the political, religious, economic, and cultural context of his time, rather than solely through categories constructed five centuries later.

What was the significance of the discovery of the Americas by European explorers led by Columbus?

Commercially, it shifted the axis of trade from the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean, opening routes to a new continent following the closure of traditional trade paths to the East.

It introduced American crops — such as potatoes, maize, tomatoes, and cacao — to Europe on a massive scale, while bringing European products, livestock, and agricultural and husbandry technologies (including the horse) to the Americas. It also supplied precious metals that stimulated the European mercantilist economy.

On the other hand, it sparked an encounter that was certainly violent but also resulted in profound biological and cultural mixing among the European, American, and African worlds — a process that definitively transformed the anthropological nature of the globe.

On the intellectual side, it forced Renaissance philosophy to rethink geography, science, and the limits of knowledge inherited from classical antiquity.

It provoked ethical and legal discussions (such as that of the Junta of Valladolid) about whether the indigenous people had a soul and rights, questioning the legitimacy of the conquest and the nature of the individual’s self. Therefore, he laid the foundations for the modern European subject, who began to think of himself as a full individual in contact with a new cosmic reality.

Historically, in what ways is Columbus connected to the present-day United States?

Columbus’s connection with the current United States territory is indirect, but important.

As I said before, Columbus did not reach the continental territory of the current United States. His trips were mainly developed through the Caribbean. But his expeditions paved the way for later Spanish exploration of North America.

In a few decades, the Spanish covered enormous territories of what is now the United States.

Ponce de León arrived in Florida in 1513. Hernando de Soto toured the southeast and the Mississippi, and Coronado explored much of the present-day southwest and reached the Great Plains. Afterward, Spanish settlements, missions, and presidiums were created from Florida to California.

An especially significant case is the city of San Agustín, founded by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés in 1565. This is the oldest permanent European settlement in the current United States.

Therefore, although Columbus did not set foot on the United States continental territory, he is at the beginning of the story that led the Spanish to explore it and settle there. And that early Spanish presence is part of the history of the United States itself. The toponymic and cultural consequences are undoubted.

This month of October, Hispanic Heritage Day is celebrated. Why in the United States should we remember that date? What contributions from Spain are most evident in North America?

I think the United States should continue to remember October 12, because it is also part of its own history. In the United States, there is, in fact, a tradition linked to Columbus Day, although the Spanish presence in North America goes far beyond Columbus.

Spain was in these territories long before the United States existed as a nation, and its mark is still very visible — in the language and toponymy, but also in the cities, squares, churches, missions, and architecture.

The missions are especially important because they constitute one of the clearest testimonies of the Spanish presence, from Florida to California, one of the best examples of that early presence.

This was precisely the link that served as the axis of the official discourse of the United States’ participation in the Ibero-American Exposition of Seville in 1929, whose government also wanted to show, through its architecture, the historical links that united it with Spain, alluding precisely to this stage.

In fact, its three pavilions were designed by William Templeton Johnson in a neo-Californian language related to the Mission Style, inspired by the architecture of the Spanish Californian missions. And the data is especially interesting because Johnson had been one of the fundamental architects of the San Diego Exposition of 1915, where this architectural language also had a leading role.

That is to say, when the United States delegation arrived at the Seville Exposition in 1929, it chose precisely an architecture that referred to its own Hispanic heritage.

Now they will have a big celebration in New York…

Yes. And we want to confirm this in these events that we will celebrate in the city of New York, and for those who accompany me, Professor Amparo Graciani and Vanessa López from the University of Seville.

I think this is of special interest. If we think about 2029, when the centenary of the Seville Exhibition will be celebrated, the United States will then have a new opportunity to be present in that Spanish city and to remember, from a current perspective, those historical and cultural ties.

That is why I believe that October 12, the commemoration of the Centennial, can be more than just a look back to 1492. It can also serve to remember a shared history and to think about the future of those links between the United States, Spain, and Iberia, and an elusive Christopher Columbus, protagonist and lead actor.