Happy Columbus Day – A Very Controversial Holiday

Columbus Day is a national holiday in many countries of the Americas and elsewhere, and a federal holiday in the United States, which officially celebrates the anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the Americas. Columbus went ashore at Guanahaní, an island in the Bahamas, on October 12, 1492 as pictured below.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro pictured at the top, said on Saturday, October 12, that “there was no discovery” of America because before 1492 there were already human beings inhabiting the continent.  “There was no discovery. Humans in America had already known each other for tens of thousands of years,” the Colombian president said on social media X.  Petro added: “Anyone who is unaware of this reality should go to Chibiriquete, San José del Guaviare, Colombia, where the prehistoric Sistine Chapel is located. Some twenty thousand years of enormous and beautiful murals of a culture that was just emerging.”

The Serranía de Chiribiquete National Natural Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is known as an indigenous sacred centre and the birthplace of the jaguar.  It is also an archaeological and biological treasure, with notable features such as the cave paintings of La Lindosa and the tepuis, steep plateaus with vertical walls and relatively flat peaks.  The Colombian government is commemorating this Saturday the day of ethnic and cultural diversity, instead of the day of the race.  “We commemorate the richness of the diverse cultures and traditions that make up our country. This day is an opportunity to reflect on the importance of inclusion and respect for all ethnic identities, recognizing that each culture enriches our social fabric,” the Foreign Ministry said in a message posted on its social media. 

Petro and his government are thus intervening in the debate that arose in Mexico in 2019 when the then Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, asked the King of Spain, Felipe VI, in a letter to apologize for the conquest.  López Obrador’s successor, Claudia Sheinbaum, encouraged Spain on Saturday to use October 12, which in Mexico is now celebrated as the Day of Indigenous Resistance, to begin a public apology to Mexico’s indigenous peoples for the abuses of the conquest. This comes after the Mexican president did not invite Felipe VI to her inauguration last week for not responding to the letter that López Obrador sent her in 2019.