Columbus who? Decolonizing the calendar in Latin America

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Elena Jackson Albarrán, Miami University

(THE CONVERSATION) This is the season of patriotism in Latin America as many countries commemorate their independence from colonial powers. From July to September, public plazas in countries from Mexico to Honduras and Chile fill with crowds dressed and painted in national colors, parades feature participants costumed as independence heroes, fireworks fill the skies, and schoolchildren reenact historical battles.

Beneath these nationalist displays ripples an uneasy tide: the colonial legacies that still tie the Americas to their Iberian conquerors. And as the calendar turns to October, another holiday highlights similar tensions – Columbus Day.

The U.S. has observed the holiday since 1937, commemorating the explorer’s 1492 arrival in the New World. The second Monday of the month remains a federal holiday, even as many states and cities rename it “Indigenous Peoples Day,” rejecting Christopher Columbus as a symbol of imperialism.

Most Latin Americans, meanwhile, know Oct. 12 as “Día de la Raza,” or Day of the Race, which also celebrates Columbus’ arrival in the New World...