Did you know that this Monday, October 10, is a holiday? Although the official name that welcomed the Government of Puerto Rico to commemorate this date was the Day of the Race, it is celebrated as a reason for the arrival of Christopher Columbus to America.
This day is one of the 18 holidays granted by the Government of the country for public employees, according to the Office of Human Resources Management and Transformation (OATRH).
However, the second Monday of October is a date when a cultural festival or extraordinary activity is not held on the island. For the Puerto Rican in the public sphere, it is purely a day of rest.
Columbus around the world
The navigator stepped on America October 12, 1492. The exact day of the event, in spainthe National Holiday is celebrated, one of the eight non-replaceable holidays. The Spanish remember it as the day of the union between Europe and America.
In other Spanish-speaking countries, they recognize it as the Day of Respect for Cultural Diversity, constituting the beginning of the exchange of traditions between the indigenous peoples and the Spanish conquerors.
The celebration of this day has been the subject of controversies and different points of view, around the conquest of America for what the figure of the colonizer represents for some regions.
However, in USAThere are still cities like Georgia, Arizona, New York, Utah, Alabama and Missouri that celebrate the “discovery,” according to historian Eloy A. Ruiz-Rivera.
In past years, a movement was created as a symbol of protest to remove the monuments of Columbus for being accused of the genocide of indigenous people. In the places that did not manage to knock them down, they beheaded them.