Is Dia de la Raza giving Columbus Day the boot?
Christopher Columbus is taking a beating among many Hispanics in the U.S., just as the so-called discoverer of America has long been losing standing in…
Members of the Knights of Columbus, took part in Columbus Day ceremonies October 8, 2012 in Washington, D.C. With growing dislike for the legacy Christopher Columbus represents some U.S. cities are going the route Latin American countries that instead celebrate “Dia de la Raza” (Day of the Race). (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Christopher Columbus is taking a beating among many Hispanics in the U.S., just as the so-called discoverer of America has long been losing standing in Latino nations throughout the western hemisphere.
On Sunday in Los Angeles, the Mexica Movement will be protesting Columbus Day with a march from historic downtown Placita Olvera where the city was founded to the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angel blocks away.
SEE ALSO: Seattle to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous People’s Day
The group will be protesting what it calls the genocidal and immoral actions of European colonialism that began with Columbuss 1492 landing in the new world and grew after 1521 when Hernán Cortés began his conquest of the Mexica empire that is Mexico today.
The Los Angeles demonstration is just the most recent protest against the celebration of Columbus Day that were at their height during the Chicano movement days of the 1960s and 1970s?and grew throughout parts of Latin America where Oct. 12 is commemorated as Día de la Raza or Day of the Race.
Resistance to Columbus Day in Latin America
In Venezuela, the countrys late president Hugo Chavez in 2003 even declared that Columbus Day would be known as Indigenous Resistance Day.
Christopher Columbus was the spearhead of the biggest invasion and genocide ever seen in the history of humanity, Chavez said of the Italian explorer.
While the rhetoric of Chavez, with his longstanding anti-U.S sympathies, was to the extreme, his sentiments of looking at Oct. 12 as an alternate celebration of Latino pride is a theme that has taken hold in the U.S. and other parts of the hemisphere.
In New York, Latinos on Sunday will celebrate Día de la Raza with the Hispanic Day Parade marching up Fifth Avenue, honoring the music and culture of the city’s more than 2.4 million Latino residents.
Annual Columbus Day Parade marches down New York City’s Fifth Avenue on October 14, 2013 in New York City. Some cities in the U.S. are giving the holiday the boot, instead opting to celebrate holidays such as Indigenous People’s Day. (Photo by Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images)
Seattle changes Columbus Day
In Seattle, the City Council voted unanimously Monday to recognize Columbus Day as Indigenous Peoples Day, a move that drew outrage from the citys Italian-American activists.
A number of countries have struggled with the meaning of the date, and so have some states and cities in this country, Seattle Times columnist Jerry Lange wrote of the Columbus Day controversy this week.
The holiday reminds many people of the devastation that came with European engagement in the Americas (named for an Italian), and the idea that Europeans discovered the continent is an irritant.
The voyages of Columbus are certainly greatly significant, but also tainted.
Dia de la Raza in Mexico
In Mexico, Oct. 12 has been celebrated as Día de la Raza for much of the past century, with the traditional Columbus Day having long incurred the wrath of Mexican historians and writers.
In 1918, philosopher Antonio Caso said that day belonged to the “Mexican mestizo race” and became perhaps the first to coin the term La Raza.
A decade later, the Mexican congress declared Día de la Raza an official national holiday.
Clara Hinojosa, director of the Mexico Institute de Dallas, says Día de la Raza offers an alternative for Latinos who have difficulty identifying with the tradition of Columbus Day,
October 12 in Mexico through the years has seen a change in the feelings of people regarding the discovery of America, she says.
SEE ALSO: Why do Latinos fail to promote themselves?
The more the story is known, the more it has lost importance, since we know Columbus always believed that he had reached India when he actually landed in the islands of the Caribbean.
