Spain’s National Day: Protests & Columbus Controversy

Spain's National Day marked by Futuro Vegetal protest against Columbus, citing oppression of Aboriginals. Activists targeted a Columbus painting. Calls for re-evaluation of Columbus's legacy grow.

Futuro Vegetal agent Luna Lagos said Spain’s National Day “commemorates centuries of oppression and genocide versus the Aboriginal individuals of Abya Yala,” making use of an Aboriginal name for the Americas. The group additionally called for boycotts of firms linked to extractive projects.

October 12 is the National Day of Spain, noting the minute in 1492 when Christopher Columbus’ expedition arrived at an island in the Americas under the Spanish flag, heralding the nation’s new period of worldwide influence. While the vacation is a grand party in the Spanish capital of Madrid, with smaller festivities held throughout the nation, it is likewise a source of opinion across the Spanish-speaking globe.

Columbus Day Protests Emerge

Per records from El Confidencial and El País, the paint damaged the left section of José Garnelo’s 1892 First Tribute to Christopher Columbus, which is displayed at the gallery entrance. Museum security detained the lobbyists, that were later on charged with crimes versus cultural heritage and taken for doubting.

In other places on Sunday in Madrid, some 20 activists from Marea Palestina organized a sit-in around Picasso’s Guernica at the Reina Sofía Museum. The demonstration demanded an end to “the genocide against the Palestinian individuals.” The museum gallery shut briefly while security addressed the action, and has actually because been resumed.

Calls for Re-evaluation of Columbus Legacy

Critics say that Spain should a lot more freely acknowledge that Columbus’s heritage includes the fatality of tens of millions of Aboriginal individuals, and enslavement of numerous more at the hands of Europeans. In Mexico, for instance, the day was relabelled Día de la Nación Pluricultural (Day of the Pluricultural Country), and in Argentina, it is called the Día del Respeto a la Diversidad Cultural (Day of Respect for Multiculturalism).

Two activists from the environment team Futuro Vegetal were detained on Sunday, October 12, the day Spain honors the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas, after throwing eco-friendly red paint on a paint of Columbus at the Naval Gallery in Madrid.