Where was Columbus born and was he Jewish?

Columbus died in Valladolid, Spain, on May 20, 1506, five hundred twenty years ago today. During his lifetime, Queen Isabel’s court chroniclers and others who knew and wrote of him said that he was Genoese, from Genoa or its environs, and when they discussed his...

The Taíno Diego Colón

My first two books trace the life of the Taíno Indian Diego Colón, Columbus’s longest-serving enslaved interpreter, and Diego continues as a protagonist in Isabel, Anacaona & Columbus’s Demise. As depicted in Encounters Unforeseen, Diego was a Lucayan Taíno born...

Origin of Repartimiento

Isabel, Anacaona & Columbus’s Demise depicts the origin of the system of repartimiento through which Spain would rule its American conquests, whereby Spanish settlers were awarded “Indian” lands and the Indians resident thereon as laborers. As related in Columbus...

Paperback Release

The paperback edition of Isabel, Anacaona & Columbus’s Demise: 1498–1502 Retold releases February 9 and is now available for preorder. Find the book description, reviews, and purchase links on my website, www.andrewrowen.com