New York City’s Columbus Day Parade Goers Feel Outrageous Over New Claim That Explorer Was Jewish, Not Italian: ‘We Don’t Care’

Was Christopher Columbus not actually Italian? Paysan-NO.

Italian Americans and Columbus Day parade-goers on Monday bluntly rejected the claim that new DNA evidence shows the controversial explorer was a Sephardic Jew, most likely from Spain.

“We don’t care,” said Sheri Corso, who attended the parade in Manhattan with an Italian flag draped around her neck.

“He will always be Italian.”

Corso wasn’t the only one chopping up the new claims like they were a cold appetizer.

Everyone, from the mayor of Genoa to Italian-American heritage groups, agreed that they didn’t care what DNA said: Columbus was as Italian as spaghetti.

The debate began with a new study that disputed the widely held, but not universal, theory that Columbus hailed from Genoa, an independent republic on the northwestern coast of Italy, before sailing on behalf of Spain in 1492 and “discovered” the New World.

Spanish researchers have extracted DNA from the bones of Columbus’ body suggesting he had Sephardic heritage, suggesting he was born in Spain and hid his Jewish identity or converted to Catholicism to avoid religious persecution. According to the BBC.

But attendees of the Columbus Day Parade, where thousands wrapped themselves in the colors of the Italian flag as they danced, waved the flag and marched along Fifth Avenue, didn’t seem to care.

“I don’t care, as long as we celebrate,” said Diane De Stasio, who walked carrying a giant Italian flag. “Because, I mean, if he’s Jewish, that’s great, but he’s still Italian. An Italian Jew.”

Cindy Trimble, who came from Cold Spring to participate in the parade, said she was just glad the Columbus Day parade was not canceled entirely because of controversies over the explorer’s brutal actions toward indigenous Caribbean people, which included sending hundreds into slavery.

“I’m a strange mix, too: I’m Sicilian and my mother is Swedish,” she said. “So as long as we celebrate Columbus!”

An Italian tourist who attended the show said: “He discovered America so he could be whatever he wanted.”

The National Italian American Foundation, which supports the Columbus Day holiday as “a source of dignity and self-worth for Italian Americans,” said the genetic study is not the whole historical story.

“NIAF stands by a statement by Genoa Mayor Marco Bucci that states, ‘The State Archives of Genoa preserves dozens of documents, mostly letters and notarial documents, which allow us to confirm the Genoese origin of Columbus and reconstruct his entourage.’” A statement from the group said: “No test will pass.” “DNA has absolutely no historical documentation.”