Should Columbus Day be celebrated or not?

In Spain, the United States and several Latin American countries, Every October 12, Columbus Day is celebrated, which commemorates the exchange of culture that existed between Europeans and Americans with the arrival of Christopher Columbus on the continent in 1492.

Although it is celebrated in several countries, not all have the same name. In Spain it is called the Hispanic Day; in the United States it is Christopher Columbus Day or Colombus Day; in Argentina they give it the name of Day of Respect for Cultural Diversity; in Chile and Peru it is the Day of the Meeting of Two Worlds and, in Colombia, it is the Day of the Race, a name that many sectors of the country have proposed to change.

What happened on October 12, 1492?

According to the history books, Christopher Columbus arrived in the American continent in his caravels: La Niña, La Pinta and La Santa María. This event throughout history has been called the discovery of America, but with the arrival of new generations that reject that name has been classified as colonization, since America was already ‘discovered’ and inhabited, and it was the Europeans who imposed themselves on those inhabitants of the continent.

In addition, some historians have ensured that Christopher Columbus was not the first to arrive in America from another continent, apparently there are records of the arrival of a group of Vikings to North America, 500 years before the Spanish trip. On the other hand, there is also evidence of the arrival of the Portuguese several decades ago, in the year 1424.

What is celebrated in Colombia?

For some sectors, October 12 celebrates the arrival of Columbus in America, the Discovery of the continent and the so-called ‘civilization’ that came with him.

For other Colombians in Columbus Day celebrates the cultural diversity of our country. It is a day in which the integration of the native indigenous peoples, the Europeans and the Africans who arrived on the continent is recognized.

For this sector, Columbus Day It is not an opportunity to celebrate colonization, a fact that left thousands of indigenous people dead, but to recognize the history of cultural, folkloric, gastronomic, musical traditions, among others., which are related to the interaction that existed between Europeans and the native inhabitants of the American continent.

In the same way, local governments and community initiatives pay tribute to all indigenous people, blacks, whites, gypsies, mestizos, mulattos and zambos who live in the country. According to the latest DANE survey, in Colombia there are 4,281,192 blacks, mulattos and Afro-Colombians, 30,565 Raizales from the San Andrés archipelago, 4,858 Gypsies or Roma, and 1,392,623 indigenous people.

There are those who consider that October 12 should be considered from another sphere. In 2019, María Linares, a Colombian visual artist who works with public art and inclusion projects, made a proposal through a web platform to rename Columbus Day because, according to her, “To use the word ‘race’ to refer to human beings is to continue a colonial tradition of discrimination.”

Why shouldn’t it be celebrated?

In Colombia there are other groups that give arguments against Columbus Day, which even They suggest that it should stop being celebrated as it is directly linked to the date and year of colonization. According to the Inter-Ethnic Truth Commission of the Pacific region-CIVP, on October 12 there really is nothing to celebrate in the country.

The CIVP considers that the story that has been told for years in books and classrooms only recounts the events of October 12, 1492 from a part of history. “Have we heard the other story, that of the conquered and colonized, that of the kidnapped and enslaved? … The other story, that of the vanquished, will say that there is nothing to celebrate October 12, a disastrous date for indigenous peoples and Afro-descendants. The other story will say that races should never have been talked about, that human beings should never have been classified according to their skin tones “.

Plácido Bailarín is an indigenous leader who belongs to the CIVP, assures that on October 12, 1492 “there was no discovery, it was invasion, death and genocide. They looted our wealth and destroyed our culture. “

For now, the prevailing position in the debate is that Columbus Day exists and is celebrated, a day of rest in Colombia. In any case, the language and the reasons for the celebration have been changing in recent years. Today we celebrate, more than the arrival of Columbus and his barges, the cultural diversity that is a hallmark of the country. In addition, it is presented as an opportunity to promote equal rights for all and reject the wounds of the colonization era.