Day of race

The Día de la Raza is one of the names given to October 12, the day that commemorates the arrival in America of the navigator Christopher Columbus in 1492. This day is celebrated in most Spanish-speaking countries and in the United States, among other countries. It was created at the beginning of the 20th century, at the initiative of the former Spanish minister Faustino Rodríguez-San Pedro. However, since the end of the XX century, movements have emerged that criticize this festivity, considering that it commemorates the subjugation and elimination of peoples. indigenous people and their cultures.

This date is named in various ways by different countries, for example:

• Columbus Day in the United States.
• Discovery Day of America in Chile.
• Hispanic Day in Spain.
• Indigenous, Black and Popular Resistance Day in Nicaragua.
• Day of Indigenous Resistance in Venezuela.
• Day of Respect for Cultural Diversity in Argentina.

History

Argentinian poster of 1947 by Race Day currently known as "Day of Cultural Diversity", corresponding to the first government of Juan Domingo Perón.

The denomination was created by the Spanish ex-minister Faustino Rodríguez-San Pedro, as president of the Ibero-American Union, who in 1913 thought of a celebration that would unite Spain and Ibero-America, choosing October 12 for this purpose. In 1914 it was celebrated on October 12 for the first time as a festival of the Race. In 1915 it was renamed Day of the Race:

That is why it was promoted by the Ibero-American Union, and for whose realization it is proposed to carry out active propaganda in 1913, that the date of the discovery of America be commemorated, in such a way that, at the same time as homage to the memory of the immortal Christopher Columbus, it will serve to externalize the spiritual intimacy between the discovering and civilizing nation and those formed on the American soil, today prosperous States.

The Union celebrated for the first time the “Fiesta de la Raza Española” in 1914 and in 1915 it was celebrated as “Día de la Raza” in the Casa Argentina in Malaga, and the “Fiesta de la Raza” in the capital from Spain. It is transformed into a national holiday by law of Alfonso XIII of June 15, 1918.

In 1917, Hipólito Yrigoyen, president of the Argentine Republic, declared that day a national holiday. Although the decree does not give it a specific name, the press and custom imposed the name Columbus Day, "although not all of us who applauded the substance of the festival were in agreement with the name by which it was designated", in the words of the Argentine journalist Ernesto Mario Barreda.

The name Día de la Hispanidad and the word Hispanidad itself was proposed in the late 1920s by Bishop Zacarías de Vizcarra (Spanish priest, resident in Buenos Aires) to the journalist Ramiro de Maeztu -at that time Spanish ambassador in Buenos Aires-, since he considered the name Día de la Raza "unhappy and somewhat inappropriate". The new name was gradually replacing the old one in Spain, until January 10, 1958 when it was made official by decree of the Presidency of the Government.

By countries

Celebration of the Race Day in the Plaza de Mayo, 1929.

• Argentina: The Day of Race was established in Argentina in 1916 by decree of President Hipólito Yrigoyen. There has been a draft decree submitted by INADI since 2007 to modify the name of Race Day for American Cultural Diversity Day. Finally it was consecrated as Day of Respect for Cultural Diversity through the decree of necessity and urgency 1584/2010 issued by President Cristina Fernández.
• Bahamas: holiday, called Discovery Day (Day of Discovery).
• Belize: holiday, called Pan-American Day (Pan American Day).
• Bolivia: by decree of 12/10/2011 is called "Day of Decolonization", after being called "Day of Liberation, Identity and Interculturality".
• Chile: was declared a festive day by law 3810 of 1922, which called it "Anniversary of the Discovery of America", although it was informally known as "Day of the Race", the name with which Spain celebrated it at that time (see below). Act No. 19,668 was published in 2000 and the trade fairs for 29 June and 12 October were transferred on Monday. day of discovery of two worlds in reference to the official motto of the celebrations of the Fifth Centennial of the Discovery of America (although the informal name is still used) and was observed on Monday closest to October 12th if this date falls between Tuesday and Friday. However, such a law did not repeal Act No. 3810 or DL 687 of 1974, and therefore the Law Day of the Discovery of America is still the official legal denomination. In recent years, representatives of groups of indigenous peoples have marched in protest, demanding greater recognition of their ancestral rights.
• Colombia: Day of Race and Hispanicity. National Festive by Law 35 of 1939 and moved to the following Monday by Law 51 of 22 December 1983.
• Costa Rica: It is not a holiday. Officially in 1968 the Day of Discovery and Racebut since 1994 it was officially transformed into the Day of Meeting of Cultures in order to jointly highlight the cultural contributions of Europeans, indigenous people, Asians and Afro-descendants. In 2019 the holiday of October 12 was eliminated to replace it on December 1st: Anniversary of the Army's Abolition in Costa Rica.
• Cuba: is not celebrated on October 12. It is observed on October 10th, an unrelated date: it corresponds to the day when the war of independence against Spain began in 1868.
• Dominican Republic: Call Identity and Cultural Diversity Day and also, Day of Meeting between Two Cultures, more than Race Day, since this last name implies that one is spoken of, the Hispanic race, leaving aside the indigenism and the African, important components in the conformation of the Dominican identity.
• Ecuador: is celebrated on October 12 under the name of the "Day of Interculturality and Plurinationality", since 2011.
• Spain: celebrated this date as Feast of the Race between 1918 (by a law of 15 June 1918, declared by the government of Antonio Maura during the reign of Alfonso XIII) and 1958, the year in which by a decree its official name is changed by that of Fiesta de la Hispanidadconfirmed in 1981 (in 1940, a ministerial order had changed the denomination to Race Day). At present it is the Spanish national party, with the denomination of Fiesta Nacional de España. In the city of Zaragoza, the festival coincides with the feast of honor to the Virgin of Pilar, patron of the city and patron of the Hispanidad.
• Guatemala: Hispanic Day.
• United States of America Columbus Day English Columbus Dayor Race Day according to the state. The current historical revisionism is making some states change their name for that of Day of Indigenous Peoplesamong those who find the city of Los Angeles with the front rejection of the Italo-American community because a part of its inheritance is erased. In the city of Chicago, the change of name was made in 2020, which relieved its community of 500 000 italo-Americans who considered it an affront by seeing Columbus as a “symbol of the resistance of a people that has helped shape the cultural landscape of this great nation”. In general, in the states and cities where the change has been made it is requested that Columbus Day be maintained and that another date be sought to create a new holiday for the Day of Indigenous Peoples so as not to dilapidate a part of the country's history and the European origin of many of its inhabitants.
• Honduras: National holiday Race Day.

For my race will speak the spirit: Lema de la UNAM created by José Vasconcelos, diffuser of the mestizo and syncrical concept Ibero-American race.

• Mexico: officially since 1928 on the initiative of José Vasconcelos, who alludes to what he called Ibero-American race, with a meaning of mestizaje and cultural syncretism. On December 18, 2020 by decree of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador the name of October 12 was changed as "Day of the Pluricultural Nation".
• Nicaragua: it is considered a relevant efeméride and has changed its name over time: first it was called "Day of the Race"Then "Hispanity Day" and today it is officially recognized by the Ministry of Education as the “Día de la Resistencia Indígena, Negra y Popular” commemorating thus the struggle of the indigenous peoples and the rich cultural heritage that they gave to Nicaraguan nationality.
• Panama: it is not a holiday. The celebration is called "Hispanity Day", "Race Day" or "American Discovery Day".
• Peru: it is not a holiday, but it is celebrated as the "Day of Originating Peoples and Intercultural Dialogue" established by Congress Law 29421 which was promulgated by President Alan García on October 9, 2009.
• El Salvador: In June 1915, the Official Journal of El Salvador published the legislative decree stating that every October 12 is a national feast "as a reminder of gratitude and admiration to the discoverer of the New World, Christopher Columbus". On October 12, 2021, the Congress of El Salvador suppressed the “Feast of Race”, considering it injuring the dignity of the original peoples.
• Uruguay: maintains the equivalent of Race Day — even though it initially made a pan-American sense — is the Day of the Americas (celebrated since 1915), different from the feast of the same name celebrated on April 14. On October 12, the "Day of Cultural Diversity" is celebrated.
• Venezuela: the celebration of the Day of Race was incorporated by the National Festivals Act of 1921. President Hugo Chávez, at the request of indigenous organizations and with the support of the then Minister of Education Aristóbulo Istúriz, decrees the "Day of Indigenous Resistance" on October 12, 2002. The president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro Moros, decreed on October 12 as the Day of Indigenous Resistance and the Decolonization of America, stressed that “on October 12 it is not the day of discovery, nor of meeting, nor of race, on October 12 it is the day of the commemoration of the resistance of indigenous peoples.”

Criticism

In some places some critical voices have emerged about the festivity, stating that the conquest of America by the European powers subdued and reduced the pre-Columbian peoples. The most common opposition today, which denounces the actions of Columbus and other Europeans against the indigenous populations of the Americas, did not gain much traction until the second half of the 20th century. This opposition was initially led by Native Americans and was expanded by left-wing political parties. Two polls, conducted in 2013 and 2015 by Rasmussen Reports, revealed that between 26% and 38% of American adults are not in favor of celebrating this date.

There are many interrelated streams of criticism. One of them mainly concerns the treatment of indigenous populations during the European colonization of the Americas, which followed the discovery of Columbus. Some groups, such as the American Indian Movement, have argued that current actions and injustices against native peoples are masked by the myths and celebrations of Columbus. Anthropologist Jack Weatherford affirms that on Columbus Day, Americans celebrate the largest successions of genocide of native populations known in history.

Journalist and media critic Norman Solomon reflects in his book Columbus Day: A Clash of Myth and History, that many people choose to cling to myths instead of the reality of the events surrounding Columbus. He disputes the idea that the arrival of the Spanish was beneficial to the Indians, citing Catholic priest Bartolomé de las Casas's Brevísima Relacion de la Destrucción de las Indias, which observed the region where Columbus ruled. Las Casas writes that the Spanish were driven by an "insatiable greed" while killing and torturing the native populations with "the strangest and most varied new methods of cruelty" and he laments that "my eyes have seen these acts so strange to human nature, and now I tremble to write."

In the summer of 1990, 350 representatives of indigenous American groups from across the hemisphere met in Quito for the first Intercontinental Meeting of Indigenous Peoples of the Americas, to mobilize against the celebration of the 500th anniversary (quincentennial) of the Day de la Raza, planned for 1992. The following summer, in Davis (California), more than a hundred Native Americans met to give continuity to the Quito conference. They declared October 12, 1992 as "International Day of Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples".