Statue in Cuba, Portugal, Honors Columbus as Salvador Fernandes Zarco

Summary: A statue in Cuba, Portugal, honors Columbus as Salvador Fernandes Zarco, son of the 1st Duke of Beja and a daughter of navigator João Gonçalves Zarco.

Bronze statue by Portuguese sculptor Alberto Trindade honors Christopher Columbus as Cuba, Portugal-born Salvador Fernandes Zarco; Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2013, 00:14: Vitor Oliveira from Torres Vedras, Portugal, CC BY SA 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons

A 20th-century statue in Cuba, Portugal, honors Columbus as Salvador Fernandes Zarco, illegitimate son of Ferdinand (Nov. 17, 1433-Sep. 18, 1470), 1st Duke of Beja, and Isabel, one of four daughters of Portuguese explorer and navigator João Gonçalves Zarco da Câmara (ca. 1390-Nov. 21, 1471).

On Saturday, Oct. 28, 2006, a bronze statue was unveiled in Cuba, Portugal. The occasion marked the 514th anniversary of landfall Oct. 28, 1492, at the Caribbean island of Cuba by late 15th and early 16th century explorer and navigator Christopher Columbus (Catalan: Cristòfor Colom; Italian: Cristoforo Colombo; Portuguese: Cristóvão Colombo; Spanish: Cristóbal Colón; ca. 1446/1451-May 20, 1506).

The town and municipality of Cuba lies in Beja District (Distrito de Beja) in Southern Portugal's Baixo Alentejo province (Província do Baixo Alentejo). The monument was placed on Largo Cristóvão Colon, in the 66-68-70 block of Rua de Serpa Pinto, between Rua de Álvaro Castelões and Rua do Paço (Old Galician, Old Portuguese paaço, “palace”; from Latin palātium, “palace”).

The statue sits in front of number 68, with two benches to the north and one to the south. The bronze figure faces westerly, opposite Tribunal da Comarca de Cuba (District Court of Cuba). The courthouse approximately marks the former location of the Beja Ducal Palace of Cuba, according to the Municipality of Cuba's (Câmara Municipal de Cuba) Visit Cuba Alentejo website and as stated by American journalist Elizabeth Nash, then Madrid correspondent for London's The Independent, in her Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2006, post, "Portuguese village opens up new world of speculation as it lays claim to Columbus."

The bronze sculpture weighs one and one-half tons and measures a height of two meters (6.56 feet). Its granite pedestal weighs seven tons, according to the Visit Cuba Alentejo website.

A half-globe depicting Earth's Northern Hemisphere rests atop the pedestal. The explorer stands with his left foot on eastern Europe and northern Asia and with his right foot on Canada and the United States. He holds a rolled map in his left hand. His upraised right hand, with thumb on right cheekbone and index finger along forehead, shields his eyes as he gazes distantly.

The statue was designed by Portuguese sculptor Alberto Trindade, born 1958 in Portugal's capital and largest city, Lisbon (Portuguese: Lisboa). From 1958 to 1960, he attended Escola de Artes Decorativas António Arroio, a central Lisbon secondary school specializing in applied arts. Trindade lived in the Netherlands (Portuguese: Países Baixos; informally, Holanda) from 1961 to 1989, according to his profile for II Exposição de Artes Plásticas (Second Exposition of Visual Arts), "Arte na Planície," held April 8 to May 30, 2006, by Associação Cultural Arte na Planície in Montemor-o-Novo, in Alentejo Province's Évora District (Portuguese: Distrito de Évora). During his Dutch years, he worked in Rotterdam (Portuguese: Roterdão), according to the statue's description on René and Peter van der Krogt's Columbus Monuments Pages.

Inscriptions on the front and two sides of the square pedestal briefly biographize the honorific statue's historical figure. The front plate states that the statue, created by sculptor Alberto Trindade and offered by José Flamínio Roza, president of Évora-based Fundação Alentejo-Terra Mãe, honors Christopher Columbus as discoverer of the Americas.

"CRISTÓVÃO COLON
Descobridor das Américas
Homenagem da Câmara Municipal de Cuba e do Núcleo de Amigos de Cuba
Obra do escultor Alberto Trindade
Oferecida por José Flamínio Roza,
Presidente da Fundação Alentejo-Terra Mãe
28 outubro 2006"

Entitled "Verdade Histórica" (Historical Truth), the side plaque below the statue's left foot identifies Cristóvão Colon's true name as Salvador Fernandes Zarco, born in Cuba, Portugal, as the son of Infante Dom Fernando, Duke of Beja, and of Donna Isabel Gonçalves Zarco.

"VERDADE HISTÓRICA
O descobridor das américas sempre escondeu
as suas origens e verdadeira identidade.

O mistério e as especulações perduraram mais
de 500 anos, a história aceitou uma incerteza.

Recentemente, notáveis historiadores e
pesquisadores concluiram que "cristóvão colon"
era português.

Filho do Infante D. Fernando, Duque de Beja e de
D. Isabel Gonçalves Zarco, o seu nome era
Salvador Gernandes Zarco e nasceu no Alentejo
em Cuba."

The side plaque below the explorer's right foot is titled "Alentejo terra mãe da descoberta" (Alentejo, Motherland of the Discovery). New World names intentionally memorialized Alentejo places, including Colon's honoring his birthplace by nostalgically giving the name of Cuba to his Oct. 28, 1492, islandic discovery, according to the plaque.

The recreation of the constellation of names around Cuba, Portugal, in proximitous places in the Cuban Caribbean is echoed by Portuguese Canadian author, archaeologist and historian Carlos Evaristo in "Secrets and Lies of Christopher Columbus," a documentary co-hosted with American underwater explorer Dave Horner, American author and documentary filmmaker Paul Perry and released in 2018 by Sakkara Productions (United States) and Crown Pictures (Portugal). "There was no other Cuba in the world at the time except this Cuba here in Alentejo, Portugal," Evaristo emphasizes. The names of more than 40 islands and locations in the northern Caribbean Sea duplicate places adjacent to Cuba, Portugal. Matches include the Caribbean's Neve (English: Nevis; Spanish: Nieves), São Bartolomeu (English: St. Barthelemy, "St. Barts"; Spanish: San Bartolomé) and Trindade (English, Spanish: Trinidad) with the Alentejo's Nossa Senhora das Neves (south of Cuba), São Bartolomeu do Outeiro (north of Cuba) and Trindade (south of Cuba) (time stamp 37:26 to 38:36).

Evaristo receives further refinement of the duplicate names from João Manuel Casaca Português (born ca. 1972), three-term mayor of Cuba since 2013. Português, mayorally titled as Presidente da Câmara Municipal (President of the Municipal Chamber), places the Alentejo names that Columbus bestowed upon his Caribbean discoveries within a radius of 50 kilometres of Cuba, Portugal. He also traces his municipality's name, unique until 1492, back, over two millennia, to the area's Roman occupation (time stamp 38:40-39:43).

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Bronze statue by Portuguese sculptor Alberto Trindade honors Christopher Columbus as Cuba, Portugal-born Salvador Fernandes Zarco; Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2013, 00:14: Vitor Oliveira from Torres Vedras, Portugal, CC BY SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Estátua_do_português(%3F)_Cristóvão_Colon_-_Cuba_-_Portugal_(11186467164).jpg; Vitor Oliveira (Portuguese_eyes), CC BY SA 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/vitor107/11186467164/

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