Culture & Impact

Columbus Day vs. Indigenous Day: How Names Shape Colonization in the United States and Latin America

October 12 or Indigenous Day carries different names across Latin America each one reveals how societies remember colonization. Read how countries reframed the holiday and why those names still matter today.

Sofía Félix Poggi Marina Carlevaro

Sofía Félix Poggi, Marina Carlevaro

— 5 min read
Indigenous woman standing and statue of Christopher Columbus
Indigenous woman and statue of Christopher Columbus

We can trace back the origin of Columbus Day to Christopher Columbus’s arrival in “The New World”, as the Europeans used to call it—needless to say, it wasn’t “new” for the Indigenous living here.

Because Columbus first landed in the Bahamas on October 12, 1492, many states adopted that date for commemoration. In Latin America, the former Spanish President of the Iberian-American Union, Faustino Rodríguez-San Pedro, chose the official name Día de la Raza (“Day of the Race”) in 1913. Yes — Día de la Raza — not to be confused with the affectionate Mexican use of raza.

Let’s dive into the complex history behind this holiday and the never-ending battle regarding its official name, because names matter, they shape public memory and policy. And while it may seem like a debate over words, the legacy of Columbus connects directly to modern systems of control, including agencies like ICE. Keep reading to reflect on that with us.

The Origin of October 12: Día de la Raza

The name of this holiday varies (with reason) across the continent. Only Colombia, Honduras, and El Salvador keep using the name Día de la Raza. Countries like Guatemala and Panama adopted the current name Spain has, Día de la Hispanidad (“Hispanicity Day”). Even a few US states have changed the name to Indigenous Peoples Day or added it as a viable alternative to Columbus Day. 

Country-by-country: What Oct. 12 is Called Today Throughout The Americas

Here are some of the different ways this date is known in Latin America:

  • Mexico: Día de la Nación Pluricultultural (“Pluricultural Nation Day”)
  • Ecuador: Día de la Interculturalidad y la Plurinacionalidad (“Interculturality and Plurinationality Day”)
  • Peru: Dia de los Pueblos Originarios y del Diálogo Intercultural (“Indigenous Peoples and Intercultural Dialogue Day”)
  • Bolivia: Día de la Descolonización (“Decolonization Day”)
  • Chile: Día del Encuentro de Dos Mundos (“Encounter of Two Worlds Day”)
  • Venezuela: Día de la Resistencia Indígena (“Indigenous Resistance Day”)
  • Nicaragua: Día de la Resistencia Indígena, Negra y Popular (“Indigenous, Black, and Popular Resistance Day”)
  • Argentina: Día del Respeto a la Diversidad Cultural (“Respect for Cultural Diversity Day”) until 2024.
  • Brazil: there isn’t a celebration (this region and its Indigenous peoples were colonized by the Portuguese Crown) 

Why Names Matter — From Statues to Modern Immigration Policy

Christopher Columbus is a controversial figure if ever there was one. Despite having bridged the gap between the old world and the new, some people believe he’s the face of the brutal pillage and rampaging of the indigenous lands, as well as the enslavery and exploitation of the peoples. The natives were seen as children, an empty vessel ready to be filled by religion and “civilized” by European standards.

But that civilization took its toll on the indigenous peoples’ lives: as Spanish clergyman Bartolomé de Las Casas wrote, 

the Spaniards were driven by "insatiable greed" 

as they killed and tortured native populations with gruesome cruelty, something that drove him to defend the natives. Some historians even believe that the “conquest” of America can be considered a genocide for the immense number of deaths it caused (let’s not forget that many natives died due to wars and from the excesses of slavery, but the main cause of death was disease). 

This is why many countries have changed the name of this holiday, but there’s been a recent return to those previous and “less progressive” names. For example, in Argentina, October 12 is not called “Respect for Cultural Diversity Day” anymore. The original name used to be Día de la Raza until former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner changed it to Día del Respeto a la Diversidad Cultural (She even replaced a statue of Columbus with one of Juana Azurduy, a national hero during the independence who had indigenous blood). However, President Javier Milei has used the former name in an official post by the Casa Rosada (the house of government) published in 2024. 

This is one of the many taunts this administration has made during their cultural battle against “wokeism”, a term used by the far right to encapsulate any theory deemed subversive. Coincidentally (or not so much), President Donald Trump posted one year later that he would go back to enacting Columbus Day as the only official holiday, doing away with the alternative proposed by former President Joe Biden in 2021. 

It’s not that names don’t matter (as journalists, we have made a career out of words, so we understand their political importance), but these constant culture-war challenges are part of a strategy to distract and divide us.. In the meantime, a campaign of fear and persecution of Latinxs via ICE and disproportionately higher rates of arrest of Black Americans as well as women and members of the LGBTQIA+ community. This opens up the discussion even more: should we be focusing that much on how a holiday is called? What’s the point of all this tug-of-war discussion when there are more pressing matters to tend to?

The answer to that isn’t a simple one, but we can start by saying that the way we name the world is the way we learn to see it and understand it. For instance, it was not until 1542, when Bartolomé de las Casas wrote the courageous words of his A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, that Indigenous began to be treated as rational and human beings, and therefore deserving of the rights of freedom. By naming the Indigenous as humans, they could begin to understand them as such (of course, the Indigenous still fight for equality and equity to this day, but it was the first step towards conceiving human rights for these groups). This same principle applies to racial slurs used against African Americans and other marginalized groups throughout U.S. American history, as well as words used to attack sexual and religious dissidence.

Words carry power, shaping how we remember history and frame public policy. Next time someone says names don’t matter, remind them of Columbus Day and its many Latin American alternatives—like Chile’s Día del Encuentro de Dos Mundos. Understanding these names helps us understand histories of colonization through multiple perspectives and find common ground.

Resumen en español

La figura de Colón es presentada como profundamente controvertida: para algunos, símbolo de conexión entre mundos; para otros, el rostro del saqueo, la esclavitud y la muerte de millones de pueblos originarios. Por eso, cambiar el nombre del feriado “Día de la Raza” o Columbus Day en Estados Unidos es una forma de replantear cómo entendemos ese pasado. El texto subraya que las palabras importan: nombrar un hecho o a un grupo social de cierta manera condiciona nuestra percepción. Así ocurrió con la defensa de los indígenas por Bartolomé de las Casas en el siglo XVI, y lo mismo sucede hoy en debates sobre minorías raciales, de género y sexuales. Finalmente, el artículo advierte que las batallas simbólicas sobre el nombre del feriado también son usadas políticamente como “cortinas de humo”, mientras se profundizan políticas de exclusión y persecución. No obstante, recuerda que el lenguaje sigue siendo una herramienta fundamental para transformar la mirada social sobre la colonización y sus consecuencias actuales.

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