The National Day of Spain, also known as Día de la Hispanidad, is celebrated on October 12. The day was formerly known as Día de la Raza in Spain and in many Hispanic American countries where October 12 is also observed. While it is still called el Día de la Raza in some countries, such as Mexico, many other countries have changed the name of the day.
On October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus arrived to the Americas for the first time. This event was of such great importance that it forever changed the development of both worlds.
Christopher Columbus never realized in his lifetime that he had not arrived to the East Indies, from which the erroneous term Indian in reference to indigenous Americans comes.
After Columbus arrived to America on October 12, 1492, other trips were organized by the Spanish Crown for explorers such as Núñez de Balboa and Francisco Hernández de Córdoba. It was Amérigo Vespucci, however, who realized that they had reached a different continent while he navigated the Northern coast of South America along Brazil and the Patagonia. The land was later called America after Vespucio.
Faustino Rodríguez-San Pedro created the name of the festival in 1913 while he was the President of the Ibero-American Union. This designation served to highlight the cultural ties that united Spain with Hispanic American countries, and thus to create a common block against the hegemony of the other Western powers.
Spain's National Holiday coincides with the feast day of Our Lady of the Pillar, patroness of the city of Zaragoza and of Spain. In Argentina, the name of the holiday was changed to Día del Respeto a la Diversidad Cultural (Day of Respect for Cultural Diversity). In Chile it is calledDía del Descubrimiento de Dos Mundos (Day of Discovery of Two Worlds), in Costa Rica it isDía de las Culturas (Day of Cultures), in the United States it is Columbus Day, in Mexico it is Día de la Raza Iberoamericana (Ibero-American Columbus Day), in Uraguay it is Día de las Americas (Pan American Day), and finally in Venezuela the holiday is known as the Día de la Resistencia Indígena (The Day of Indigenous Resistance).
On 2014 the United Nations declared October 12 Spanish Language Day, a day to honor a language that unifies speakers on both sides of the Atlantic.
Celebrating the day in New York:
Celebrating the day in Spain:
Spanish Empire in North America:
LINKS:
-Full March of Spanish Armed Forces:
-http://www.donquijote.org/culture/spain/society/holidays/dia-de-la-hispanidad.asp
-http://www.elnuevoherald.com/noticias/estados-unidos/article2692530.html
-http://politica.elpais.com/politica/2014/10/12/album/1413103319_477790.html#1413103319_477790_1413132398
