There was a time when we talked about discovery of America It was normalized and well-regarded. But for some time now, the historical review has fixed the date of October 12 from 1492 In quarantine. The day Christopher Columbus first landed on the American continent – on a journey he intended to end in the Indies – is celebrated in Spain in style, with a vacation At the national level, a large military parade and a lot of pomp. And until relatively recently, October 12 was celebrated in the same way in many countries on the American continent. NOW, history began to change.
In Spain… Hispanic Heritage Day?
The first doubt arises about the name of this festival in our own country. Some continue to refer to Columbus Day, although the official name for October 12 is the Spanish national holiday. The first time this holiday was celebrated was during the regency of María Cristina in 1892, coinciding with the fourth centenary of the arrival of Columbus in America. At that time both names were used, Spanish National Day and Hispanic Heritage Day. However, at some point it was renamed Columbus Daynot only in Spain but in many other countries.
The architect of this nomenclature was the former mayor of Madrid and former minister Faustino Rodríguez San Pedro, who attempted to unite all Spanish-speaking peoples under this same “umbrella” of celebration. In Spain, Columbus Day was celebrated until the mid-1950s, although it was not officially celebrated until the 1980s. when he changed his name to reclaim the Hispanic Heritage Festival. In the rest of the countries, the changes took place much later.
Where is Columbus Day still celebrated?
But not in all. The truth is that in some Latin American countries, Columbus Day is still celebrated with this (or similar) nomenclature, without having integrated the question of reparation into its national debate or the historical analysis that has been carried out in other places. For example, what happens in Guatemalawho celebrates it as it is even if he does not consider it a public holiday in his work calendar. However, the Guatemalan Stock Exchange takes advantage of this day to “close” and does not operate, precisely in relation to Columbus Day.
In many Latin American countries, whether a public holiday or not, Columbus Day continues to be celebrated.
Another country where the name Columbus Day is retained is Honduras, although it does not always include it as a public holiday: there, in the month of October, they have what is called the Morazán Feast, the union of several public holidays that take place in the month of October, so that instead of having several separate non-working days, a “macro-bridge” is made to enjoy five days off in a row. The dates of the Morazán holiday vary each year, but they generally revolve around the three October holidays: the 3rd, 12th and 20th, respectively, Honduran Soldier, Race and Armed Forces Day.
In Uruguay Columbus Day is also maintained as a public holiday and public holiday, although in 2023 it was moved to Monday, October 16, under a law that requires changes to holidays falling on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or on Friday, to move them to the previous Monday. or after to extend the weekend. In Panamafor their part, also keep Columbus Day on their calendar, although in this case it is not considered a public holiday.
The different cultural and indigenous names of October 12
The debate on celebrating (or not) this date is still open, but it was opened a few years ago. It was Hugo Chávez’s Venezuela that was the first to set the course October 12, the celebration of Indigenous Resistance Dayin 2002, triggering similar reactions across much of the region. The journalist has already explained Eduardo Galeanoabout an October 12 meeting at Mexico’s National Commission on Human Rights (CDNH), that these changes are closely linked “to the social and historical reflection of the populations” and that they depend, to a large extent , of the way in which Columbus is perceived in each country.
In America, Indians are raising their voices to take history into their own hands, reinterpret it and build their present.
“Across the continent, indigenous peoples fight for recognition of their identity and their ways of life, they defend their territories and their natural resources. From Chile to Canada, via South America, Central America and Mexico, Indians are raising their voices to take history in hand, reinterpret it and construct their present and the decisions that concern them by pressing decolonization of knowledge, visions far from Eurocentrism“, among other new concepts that constantly arise in philosophy and practice,” he noted. All this, he explained, is the reason why October 12 went from the traditional Christopher Columbus Day to that of “a day of struggle and demand of the indigenous people.” peoples.”
Columbus Day, USA
In the United States, not necessarily on October 12, but around this date the celebration has been celebrated throughout history. Columbus Daythe second Monday of this month. It is one of 11 federal holidays – this does not mean that it is a nationwide holiday, but that all federal employees have this day off – but in recent years its celebration at state level has been significantly reduced. As part of the Black Lives Matter protests, many citizens have demolished (or attempted to demolish) statues dedicated to Columbus in different parts of the country, to the point that former President Donald Trump even approved an order punishing the destruction of statues with up to 10 years in prison.
Even in cases of controversy, the debate on the relevance of celebrating the arrival of the Spanish in the American continent, with all that this implies, is what has generated certain changes, as has happened in other countries of Central and South America. Native Americans also joined this debate, insisting on the need to modify this holiday. Thus, today only 16 states in the United States and the territory of Samoa continue to observe the second Monday in October as a day. holiday exclusively called Columbus Dayaccording to data recently released by the Pew Research Center.
In four other states, two territories and Washington DC, it is considered public holiday but with a different nomenclaturewhile four other states and the Virgin Islands mark it as Columbus Day, but with an alternative name. It is in a total of 26 states and the territory of Guam that Columbus Day has ceased to be celebrated and not only is this holiday not observed, but it remains a common working day, like the others. The alternative names that have been given to Columbus Day in the United States are in line with the names chosen in Latin America: Indigenous Peoples Day, Native American Day or Native American Heritage Day.
All the names of October 12 around the world
- National Day of Spain, Spain
- Day of respect for cultural diversity, Argentina
- National Heroes Day, Bahamas
- Day of Resistance of Indigenous Peoples, Belize
- Decolonization Day in the Plurinational State, in Bolivia
- Day of the meeting between two worlds, at Pepper
- Day of Ethnic and Cultural Diversity of the Colombian Nation, Colombia
- Day of Cultures, Costa Rica
- Intercultural and plurinational day, Ecuador
- Multicultural Nation Day, Mexico
- Day of indigenous, black and popular resistance, Nicaragua
- Day of Indigenous Peoples and Intercultural Dialogue, in Peru
- Day of Identity and Cultural Diversity, Dominican Republic
- Day of Indigenous Resistance, Venezuela
- Indigenous Peoples Day, in some states of the United States
- Native American Day, in some states of the United States
- Native American Heritage Day, some states of the United States
Places where October 12 is not celebrated
Other countries have forgotten the celebrations of this day. THE El Salvador Running FestivalFor example, which was considered a national holiday in “remembrance of gratitude and admiration for the discoverer of the New World, Christopher Columbus”, disappeared from the working calendar in 2021, after Parliament, after a heated debate, approved the rule. El Salvador, a country with a 17% indigenous population —among the Nahuat, Pipils, Lencas, Kakawiras and Maya Chortís—, has celebrated Columbus Day since 1939.
Also in Paraguay This holiday ceased to be celebrated, without making much noise along the way. In a letter addressed to the President of the Republic at the time, Mario Abdo, Paraguayan journalist Cristian Nielsen asks for “explanations on the place of October 12 as a holiday date in the Paraguayan holiday calendar”, which in 2020 ceased to exist. ‘appear in the same. “Its absence perplexes me because, back when I was at school, this date was listed in the almanac in red, which guaranteed a day of leisure after singing the national anthem and attending the well-known event of remember the day the Spaniards discovered America. Or whatever“, says Nielsen, not without evoking the “revisionist currents of all colors” which, in Nielsen’s words, wanted to make Christopher Columbus “a kind of genocidal destroyer of indigenous peoples”.
The Cubans, for their part, yes, they have a party in Octoberbut far from remembering Columbus’s arrival in America, they remember his decolonization of Spain. Instead of October 12, Cuba’s National Day is October 10day of the start of the War of Independence, when what was called ‘Yara screams‘: It was on the night of October 9 to 10 when Carlos Manuel de Céspedes read the revolutionary manifesto seeking the independence of the island, then a Spanish colony, based on the equality of all peoples, white or black, Cuban or Spanish.
