Cristobal Colon, the 20th direct descendant of Christopher Columbus, is back in the New World for a visit that will include a hallowed native ritual, the Washington cocktail party.
Colon, a Spanish naval officer and yachting enthusiast, landed this week to attend Columbus Day festivities and help launch a yearlong celebration of the 500th anniversary of his ancestor's discovery of America.His commercial flight from Madrid took less than eight hours. It took Columbus 33 days to sail from Spain to America on the Santa Maria.
A trim, diffident man with an easy smile, Colon was celebrating his 42nd birthday Friday with lunch at the National Geographic Society, a meeting with the Daughters of the American Revolution and a cocktail reception at the Spanish Embassy.
Colon has visited America nearly a dozen times since 1972, when he first saw Los Angeles as a young midshipman on a round-the-world cruise aboard the Spanish navy's sailing ship.
He says he has a special feeling every time.
"Of course, I feel very proud when I visit America and think it's more or less the evolution of what happened because of my ancestor," Colon said in an interview Thursday after a visit to FBI headquarters.
At Friday night's embassy party, Colon will not only socialize but will also embark on a delicate mission of reconciliation. The invited guests include a group of American Indians, who historically view Columbus with bitter resentment as a symbol of Spanish conquest.
The Foundation for the Advancement of Hispanic Americans, which is host for Colon's two-week visit, said the embassy party will be the first of a series of meetings aimed at healing old wounds among Native Americans.
Colon's latest tour also will include a meeting with President Bush and stops in Los Angeles; El Paso, Texas; Santa Fe, N.M.; and New York, where Colon will be grand marshal of the city's annual Columbus Day parade on Oct. 14.
When his father, a Spanish navy admiral, was assassinated by Basque terrorists in 1986, Colon inherited the titles of nobility that the Spanish monarchs bestowed on Columbus' direct descendants - Duke of Veragua, Duke of la Vega and Marquis of Jamaica.