Columbus Day is considered a historical event, it is remembered for the arrival of Christopher Columbus to America in 1492, this event was called “discovery of America”, in which an entire crew also participated, which arrived on an island in the Bahamas, naming it “San Salvador.”
Columbus Day and the reasons for its meaning
The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) highlights that ‘Race Day’ was named this way because at that time the so-called “mestizaje” began between the white Spanish race, the indigenous race, the Union of Europe and America. .
More than 500 years after the event of the beginning of a territorial expansion for religious, commercial, economic and social purposes, one of the antecedents that historians have compiled is that Spain was one of the first European countries to reach this new territory with the in order to continue its expansion.
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The “discovery of America” was born by the navigator Christopher Columbus on October 12, 1492, the date on which he arrived at Guanahaní Island in the Bahamas with the aim of finding a new trade route with India, but instead, he discovered “a new world”.
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Foto: Getty Images
That day, three ships arrived in America; the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa María. At that moment in history “miscegenation” was born. In Mexico, the celebration of Columbus Day was born from the idea of “cultural syncretism” that the former Secretary of Public Education, José Vasconcelos, had.
In 1917 the commemoration of Columbus Day was born, but it was not until October 10, 1929, during the period of governance of former President Venustiano Carranza, when members of Congress approved its national holiday for October 12 of each year.
YOU CAN ALSO READ: Is there a long weekend in Mexico for Columbus Day or is it an official holiday on October 12, 2024?
Why is Columbus Day no longer celebrated in Mexico?
On December 18, 2020, during the six-year term of former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a decree was published in which the Pluricultural Nation Day was officially established every October 12, with the aim of valuing and recognizing the importance of indigenous and Afro-Mexican peoples.
The reasons for the name change were to avoid celebrating the subjugation and elimination of pre-Columbian indigenous peoples and their cultures. Meanwhile, the National Human Rights Commission highlighted that in Mexico and Latin America, October 12 is now considered “Indigenous Resistance Day”, where a day of struggle and demand for the indigenous peoples takes place.
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Photo: “Columbus arrives in Hispaniola”, Theodor de Bry
In recent years in Mexico and other Latin American countries, Columbus Day is no longer celebrated and rather it has been named October 12 as Indigenous Resistance Day to vindicate the territorial and agrarian rights of indigenous peoples, thus forcing the recognition of the cultural and ethnic plurality of societies.
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The Data! The United Nations General Assembly established a resolution for the period 2022-2032, “Decade of Indigenous Languages”, and Mexico is hosting this high-level event, whose purpose is for the international community to define the goals and actions to the indigenous peoples.
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