You don't want to hear my opinon on this so read theirs

MADRID (AFP) - Spain is due to mark the 500th anniversary of the death of explorer Christopher Columbus, whose name is as divisive today as it was awe inspiring centuries ago.

The argument over whether Columbus and his fellow travellers were a source for good or wealth-crazed egotists who ran roughshod over native American culture has fuelled interest in the vast array of celebratory events.

The sailor's descendants have even weighed into the debate, mounting a spirited defence of the man who "discovered" a new continent but died almost forgotten in the northern city of Valladolid on May 20, 1506.

Valladolid will host an open-air performance of "The Great Navigator", a cantata composed by Blas Emilio Atehortua from Colombia, the country which bears the explorer's name.

The southern city of Huelva will mark the anniversary Saturday at La Rabida monastery, where in 1485 Fransciscan monks received an explorer seeking funds for a project to reach the Indies by sailing westwards.

Seven years later, emboldened by his success in enlisting the help of Spain's Catholic Monarchs, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabela, Columbus visited the monastery again before setting sail.

After two months aboard his flag ship, the Santa Maria, Columbus and his fellow travellers disembarked in the Bahamas on October 12, 1492, so "discovering" the New World they thought was Asia.

Three more voyages would follow but two years after the last one Columbus lay dead, rich but ignored by his contemporaries.

Five centuries on, the debate over Columbus' legacy has refused to die down and a book recently published in Spain dismisses him as an "impostor".

Little in the way of celebration is expected in the United States to remember the "Admiral of the Ocean Sea", who died at 55, bitter and resentful of what he saw as a lack of recognition by the Spanish crown, on whose account he had criss-crossed the globe.

And the anniversary is set to pass off amid indifference in Genoa, the Italian city which most historians say was his birthplace.

That has not pleased his 15th generation of descendants.

Cristobal Colon de Carvajal, the Duke of Veragua, complained recently that modern society "denigrates" his famous ancestor by believing in the "Black Legend" of colonial cruelty, "the bad side" of the Conquistadors who claim to have discovered the New World.

"For the man in the street in England, Nelson is an untouchable national hero," the Duke protested.

In Columbus' defence, Valladolid's Pimentel Palace has been hosting an exhibition of manuscripts, books and engravings laying out the scientific discoveries which Columbus's ocean voyages produced.

The exhibition also focuses on the "revolutionary" influence of his seafaring exploits on medecine, pharmacology, botany and zoology.

Publishers have also got in on the act by issuing a new edition of "Life of the Admiral", a tome written by Columbus' son Hernando and prefaced by British author Hugh Thomas.

The commemorations in Valladolid will not stop on Saturday. The city will stage another concert on May 27, this one bringing together singers from both sides of the Atlantic, including Mexican-born Julieta Venegas and Argentina's Andres Calamaro.

Meanwhile an international team of scientists will continue to try to solve another debate over Columbus -- who his true heirs are.

Experts from France, Italy and Spain are comparing DNA samples from the explorer's elder son, Hernando, whose remains lie in Seville cathedral, with those of the hundreds of people who believe they are Colombus's descendants.

 

wow, sounds a bit negative.

 

Columbus was Italian, screw what Spain wants. Outside of Roman Catholics who still adore him he has few fans in the US. Columbus and his cohorts and the Conquistadors who followed them left destruction in their wake. They enslaved and killed millions, stole everything that they could, spread disease and destroyed the cultures of Central America. Honor him? Hardly.