October 12: What is el Día
de la Raza?
Ask anyone in the United States what October 12, 1492,
means and you’ll get the answer: the day that
Christopher Columbus discovered America. But for
many indigenous cultures in the United States and in
Latin America, this date has a much different meaning. Día de la Raza, October 12 (or the
nearest Monday to it) is traditionally celebrated throughout the Americas as the day
Christopher Columbus arrived in 1492. In English speaking countries, the day is celebrated
as Columbus Day or Native American Day. In Spanish speaking countries and communities,
Día de la Raza is the celebration of the Hispanic heritage of Latin America and brings into it
all the ethnic and cultural influences making it distinctive.
El Día de la Raza, (the Day of Our Race) as Hispanics refer to this date, represents a time not
when America was discovered, but when the lives of the indigenous people, who already
existed throughout the Americas and the Caribbean, were irreparably changed. When Latin
Americans refer to “race,” they’re speaking of their Spanish and their indigenous roots, and
October 12 becomes a day to celebrate that mixed heritage. Hispanics in the United States
have also embraced the day, however, as a time to primarily celebrate their indigenous
roots, and as more historians reveal the true nature of that fateful trip from Spain to Santo
Domingo in the Bahamas by Christopher Columbus (where Columbus first landed), more and
more people find the concepts behind Día de la Raza comforting.
Exactly when Hispanics in the U.S. embraced el Día de la Raza is unclear, but the holiday
certainly gained widespread visibility in 1988 when Congress expanded Hispanic Heritage
Week to a month-long celebration, September 15 through October 15, incorporating Día de
la Raza. Associate professor of art history at the University of Texas at Austin, Amelia
Malagamba, offers her theories regarding the evolution of Día de la Raza in this country.
“Much like the Columbus Day celebrations in the U.S., [it] began as a date to commemorate
‘the discovery’ of America in Latin America as well, which carried more irony since it was the
celebration of the conquest, the annihilation of the populace (the indigenous population),
but also the recognition of the mestizaje (the clash of the two cultures, Spanish and
indigenous, that produced a new race.) This is a day Hispanics choose to reaffirm their
cultural pride for the part of them that may have been overlooked or forgotten.”
Exceptional activities associated with Día de la Raza celebrations include indigenous
dancing, spiritual cleansing, and mask making. The solemnity of the day is keenly felt,
though, and for this reason, Día de la Raza has been used to promote causes and to educate
people about the Hispanic heritage of this country. Most Día de la Raza celebrations focus
on indigenous values, like an appreciation of the Earth, and learning the names of the
indigenous leaders as well as the Spanish conquistadors who followed after Columbus. Most
Día de la Raza celebrations highlight the themes of empowerment, spirituality, and history.
Preguntas de la Lectura (Questions from the Reading):
1. What day does October 12, 1492 represent for most
people in the United States?
2. What does el Día de la Raza mean in English?
3. What does el Día de la Raza represent for for Latinos?
4. Of what roots are they speaking when Latin Americans
refer to race?
5. When did the holiday, el Día de la Raza, gain widespread
visibility in the United States?
6. What is mestizaje?
7. What activities often take place at Día de la Raza
celebrations?
8. (Complete the sentence.) Most Día de la Raza celebrations
highlight the themes of __________________,
________________, and ________________.