When I spent my first Columbus Day<\/b> in Mexico, my first reaction was \u201cMexico celebrates Columbus Day?\u201d It is embarrassing to recall now, but I think after years of elementary school training, I was conditioned to think \u201cColumbus discovered America\u201d and, in typical egotistical fashion, I assumed \u201cAmerica\u201d referred to the United States. Somehow, even knowing that Columbus landed in the Caribbean and never saw the U.S. didn\u2019t alter my narrow-minded thinking. My teacher said \u201cColumbus discovered America\u201d and my young brain left it at that.<br \/
\nIt took just a nanosecond to realize my surprise was illogical. October 12th is a date of enormous significance for the Spanish-speaking world. Before dawn on that day in 1492, Christopher Columbus (Crist\u00f3bal Col\u00f3n<\/b>) and his crew first spied land from the decks of the Pinta and later that day dropped anchor off the shore of a Bahaman island. By December he had also explored Cuba<\/b> and the island of Hispa\u00f1ola<\/b> (today the island shared by Haiti<\/b> and the Dominican Republic<\/b>). The \u201cdiscovery\u201d was made in the name of the Spanish crown, the voyage\u2019s financier. Within fifty years of Columbus\u2019 first voyage, nearly all of Central and South America had been colonized by the Spanish<\/p>\n
\nGiven the importance of October 12th<\/b> in Spanish history, perhaps it is surprising that Columbus Day was first celebrated in 1866 by the Italians of New York City, in honor of Columbus\u2019 Italian heritage. It wasn\u2019t until 1913 that the day was made an official celebration in Spain<\/b> (and soon after in Latin America<\/b>), as a way to commemorate the union of Spain with the peoples of the Americas, the forging of a new pan-Hispanic identity, and the spreading of the Spanish language. Generally, October 12th is considered a positive celebration of the mixing of peoples and cultures. As in the United States, the day is also viewed with skepticism and anger by some, who view Columbus\u2019 arrival to the Americas as the beginning of the violent destruction of native peoples.<\/p>\n
Columbus Day<\/b> has a number of different names in the Spanish-speaking world. According to Wikipedia, in Spain and Ecuador<\/b> it is currently known as El D\u00eda de la Hispanidad<\/b> (Day of Spanishness<\/em>), in Mexico as the D\u00eda de la Raza<\/b> (Day of the Race<\/em>), in Chile<\/b> as El D\u00eda del Descubrimiento de Dos Mundos<\/b> (The Day of the Discovery of Two Worlds<\/em>), and in Uruguay<\/b> as El D\u00eda de las Americas<\/b> (The Day of the Americas<\/em>). In Venezuela<\/b>, the day has been known as El D\u00eda de la Resistencia Ind\u00edgena<\/b> (The Day of Indigenous Resistance<\/em>) since 2002.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When I spent my first Columbus Day in Mexico, my first reaction was \u201cMexico celebrates Columbus Day?\u201d It is embarrassing to recall now, but I think after years of elementary school training, I was conditioned to think \u201cColumbus discovered America\u201d and, in typical egotistical fashion, I assumed \u201cAmerica\u201d referred to the United States. Somehow, even…<\/p>\n