Visitors to New York's Columbus Day parade get cheeky about new claim that the explorer was Jewish, not Italian: 'We don't care'

Christopher Columbus wasn't actually Italian? Paesan NO.

Italian-Americans and participants in the Columbus Day parade on Monday cheekily rejected claims that new DNA evidence shows the controversial explorer was a Sephardic Jew, probably from Spain.

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

“He will always be Italian.”

Corso wasn't the only one to slash the new claims like they were a cold antipasto.

Everyone from the mayor of Genoa to Italian-American heritage groups agreed: They don't care what the DNA says, Columbus was as Italian as spaghetti.

The debate began with a new study that contradicted the popular but not universal theory that Columbus came from Genoa, an independent republic on the northwest coast of Italy, before sailing on behalf of Spain in 1492 and “discovering” the New World.

According to the BBC, Spanish researchers extracted DNA from the bones of Columbus' body that suggested he had Sephardic ancestry, suggesting he was born in Spain and either concealed his Jewish identity or converted to Catholicism to avoid religious persecution escape.

But participants in the Columbus Day parade, where thousands draped themselves in the colors of the Italian flag as they danced, waved flags and marched down Fifth Avenue, didn't seem to care.

“I wouldn’t care as long as we celebrate,” said Diane di Stazzio, who marched with a giant Italian flag. “Because I mean, if he's Jewish, that's great, but he's still Italian. Italian Jew.”

Cindy Trimble, who traveled from Cold Spring for the parade, said she was just glad the Columbus Day parade wasn't canceled entirely because of disputes over the explorer's brutal treatment of local Caribbean people the enslavement of hundreds of people.

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

“He discovered America so he could be whatever he wanted,” said an Italian tourist at the parade.

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

“NIAF adheres to the statement of the Mayor of Genoa, Marco Bucci, which reads: “The State Archives of Genoa preserve dozens of documents, mainly letters and notarial deeds, that allow us to assert the Genoese origins of Columbus and his entourage “No DNA test will ever surpass historical documentation,” the group said in a statement.