Gabriel Verd from Montuiri has spent fifty of his 68 years researching Christopher Columbus and in seeking to prove that the explorer was born in Mallorca and not in Genoa.
This research started because, when he was young, he used to hear people say that Columbus had been born in Felanitx. If so, where was the evidence?
This initially came from two researchers who, at the end of the 1950s, maintained that Columbus was from Mallorca - Manuel López Flores from Seville and a Venezuelan, Hermano Nectario María.
One of the many indications, according to Gabriel, comes from an island off Venezuela. Columbus called it Margalida, and Margalida was a Mallorcan name. It was the name of Cristòfor Colom's mother - Margalida Colom. Why would Columbus (Colom) have used Margalida rather than Margarita or Margaretta, which would have been in keeping with the Genoa origins?
As you would expect, there is very much more to his theory than the name of a single island and which argues that Cristòfor Colom was born in 1460 at the S'Alqueria Roja finca in Felanitx. He was the illegitimate son of Carlos, the Prince of Viana, the half-brother of Ferdinand of Aragon. Ferdinand married Isabel of Castile. The Catholic Monarchs, Isabel and Ferdinand, were to eventually give their support to Columbus's belief that he could discover the New World.
The generally accepted story is that Christoffa Corombo was born in Genoa in 1451. His father was Domenico, a weaver who became an innkeeper. His mother Susanna was also a weaver. One line of argument that disputes Genoa has it that someone from such humble origins wouldn't have found himself in court circles in Spain. The Verd theory does offer an explanation of this.
But there has never been definitive proof to alter the generally accepted version. For the best part of twenty years, there have been attempts at analysing DNA, a far from straightforward process. However, results of DNA testing are soon to be made available, possibly this spring.
Crucially, explains Gabriel, this research has been conducted at three separate centres - the University of Granada, a university in Texas, a laboratory in Mexico. Three places will provide the proof, he believes, that Columbus was Mallorcan.