Voices

Historian Elena Jackson Albarrán: ‘Columbus Who? Decolonizing the Calendar in Latin America’

Latin America's Día de la Raza has been renamed to reflect anti-colonial sentiments, as with Columbus Day in the U.S., writes Albarrán

Published 10/15/24 • Last updated 2/20/26 15:17:3

Voices

Historian Elena Jackson Albarrán: ‘Columbus Who? Decolonizing the Calendar in Latin America’

Latin America's Día de la Raza has been renamed to reflect anti-colonial sentiments, as with Columbus Day in the U.S., writes Albarrán

Published 10/15/24 • Last updated 2/20/26 15:17:3

Most Latin Americans know Oct. 12 as “Día de la Raza,” or Day of the Race, which also celebrates Columbus’ arrival in the New World and the tide of Iberian conquistadors that followed. But commemorating the event is all the more charged in these countries, home to the Spanish Empire’s most lucrative territorial assets and sweeping spiritual conquests, writes Elena Jackson Albarrán, associate professor of Global and Intercultural Studies and History.

“As a historian of Latin America, I’ve paid attention to the ways calendars signal a nation’s “official” values and how countries wrestle with these holidays’ meanings,” Albarrán writes.

The Día de la Raza has since been renamed to reflect anti-colonial sentiments, similar to Columbus Day in the United States. Ecuador calls Oct. 12 the Day of Interculturalism and Ethnic Identity; Argentina celebrates it as Day of Respect for Cultural Diversity; Nicaragua now refers to it as the Day of Indigenous, Black and Popular Resistance; in Colombia it is the Day of Ethnic and Cultural Diversity; and the Dominican Republic celebrates it as Intercultural Day.

Read Albarrán’s article,”Columbus Who? Decolonizing the Calendar in Latin America” in The Conversation (Oct. 9).