Do you know what we celebrate on October 12th?
We call it Día de la Raza, Day of the Race; though some countries celebrate it as Columbus Day, or under other names. Let me tell you why.
In the 15th century, an Italian sailor named Christopher Columbus thought he had found a new and shorter route to India, which was a trading partner of many countries in Europe. It took him eight years to convince Queen Isabella of Spain to pay for his journey. He left with three small ships; you probably know their names: La Niña, La Pinta, and La Santa María. And, on October 12th, 1492, he landed on an island in the Bahamas, thinking he was in India.
Most people believe that America was discovered long before Columbus arrived, but he was the first one to really establish contact between our continent and Europe. When he found out that the new land was not India, he claimed it in the name of the Spanish monarchy.
Thirty years later, Mexico was conquered by Hernán Cortés and became a colony of Spain for the next 300 years. The Spanish conquistadors brought missionaries with them, some of whom were very impressed by the local cultures. Although Spain imposed its government and religion, the people intermarried and many native traditions have survived. Our nation today is a mixture of the Spanish and the indigenous.
We call that new race and that new culture –which came into existence partly because Christopher Columbus landed in America 507 years ago– mestizo, and that is what we celebrate on October 12th, Día de la Raza
