Pruebas que la historia estaba equivocada 500 ańos de burla revelados. El controvertido navegante era un espía y conspirador, un agente secreto al servicio del rey de Portugal. Colón no buscó financiación en la Corte de los Reyes Católicos porque le hubieran dado calabazas en el país vecino, sino que esta circunstancia obedeció a una hábil y siniestra maniobra: vender a los castellanos un nueva ruta hacia las Indias para dejar libre a los portugueses la vía verdadera sin que hubiera intromisión por parte castellana. Rosa, que lleva casi veinte ańos investigando a fondo la figura de Colón, y que afirma tener respaldado con documentación histórico todo cuando ha escrito. Sostiene la imposibilidad de que un tejedor de lana llegue a casarse con Felipa Muńiz, una comendadora de la Orden de Santiago cuyo matrimonio debía aprobar el mismísimo monarca luso. El historiador apunta que éste estaría al corriente del linaje noble de Colón. Aunque parezca mentira, no son las únicas revelaciones sorprendentes del libro. Otra de las novedades de la enésima publicación sobre el universal navegante hace referencia a la nao Santa María. Rosa defiende que la embarcación no encalló en las costas de la actual República Dominicana, sino que fue el propio Colón quien la inutilizó, perforándola con un cańonazo de lombarda, para que sirviera de fortín a los tripulantes enviados por la Corte Castellana, a los que allí dejó para que no pudiesen desmontar ante los monarcas mentiras como que había estado efectivamente en La India (y era evidente que el lugar al que había llegado no eran ésta) o que había dejado una ciudad conquistada. Como el viaje formaba parte de esa conspiración, Cristóbal Colón dio a su regreso a Castilla medidas erróneas sobre aquellas nuevas tierras de forma deliberada y no por ignorancia, sino para persistir en el engańo y la confusión de quienes le pagaban. R. PÉREZ BARREDO (Diario de Burgos)
MANUEL ROSA is a Portuguese-American historian born in Madalena, Azores, who moved to Somerville, MA, in 1973. He currently lives in North Carolina and works at Duke.
Mr. Rosa has had a wide-ranging professional career. In 1976 he received the Boston Globe's Art Merit Award. In the 80s he became an expert in digital art creation and was invited to advise Prentice Hall in that digital process. In the year 2000 he begun a new career with Lockheed Martin Corporation, contracted to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, where he again distinguished himself and received Lockheed Martin's Lightning Award in 2002.
As a Graphic Artist, Mr. Rosa worked on the Atlantic Monthly, Boston Magazine, among others and built WJFD's first website carrying "Live Radio" over the Internet, which he offered free of charge to his longtime friend, Mr. Edmund Dinis.
Since 1991, Manuel Rosa has spent all his available time carrying out a scientific investigation of the life of Christopher Columbus. This 22-year investigation is ongoing and has taken him to the Dominican Republic, to Poland, Portugal, Spain and all places in between in his relentless quest for the truth. He was the only Portuguese historian involved with the DNA studies of Columbus' bones at the University of Granada and was responsible for getting D. Duarte, Duke of Braganza as well as the Count of Ribeira Grande to participate in those DNA tests.
In 2006, after 15 years of research, Mr. Rosa published his first academic book, "O Mistério Colombo Revelado" (The Columbus Mystery Revealed). In 2009 he published a second book "Colombo Português-Novas Revelações" (Portuguese Columbus-New Revelations), prefaced by Professor Joaquim Veríssimo Serrão (Ex-President of the Portuguese Academy of History, Professor Emeritus and Dean of the University of Lisbon).
The book, "Portuguese Columbus-New Revelations" received accolades from the Portuguese academics, including from Professor Manuel Mendonça, President of the Portuguese Academy of History, and sold out in a few months. It is now available in digital format at the iTunes and Kindle stores.
Mr. Rosa's third book, "COLÓN. La Historia Nunca Contada" (Columbus. The Untold Story) was published in Spain in 2010 and was translated and published as "KOLUMB. Historia Nieznana" (COLUMBUS. Unknown History) in Poland where it is having great success, even coming ahead of Steve Jobs's book in some cases.
Fluent in three languages and conversant in three more, he was well prepared to juxtapose the facts documents and chronicles of different kingdoms in order to flush out the facts of history. Since 2006, Mr. Rosa has been considered the top expert on Columbus history and has been interviewed by various reporters around the world including Público, SIC TV, RTP TV, BBC Radio, WNPR, El Mundo, Telegraph, New York Daily, etc, and made the cover of Newsweek Magazine (Poland).
His lectures, presented at universities, schools and organizations in Portugal, Spain, Poland, Switzerland, and USA, are succeeding in convincing the attendees that the history of Columbus that we knew was completely wrong and his books have become the standard by which Columbus biographies are being judged.
