El Salvador
In
The United Kingdom and Ireland

Landing of Columbus. Christopher Columbus and others showing objects to Native American men and women on shore.

Day of the Race or "Columbus Day" is the name given by some Latin American countries to the day commemorating the first sighting of land by the sailor Rodrigo de Triana on October 12, 1492, after traveling for more than 72 days under the command of Christopher Columbus. It is considered a memorable occasion for it was after this day that relationships and contact between Europe and America began, culminating in what is sometimes called as " the encounter of the two worlds".

The 12th of October marks the birth of a new identity, product of the encounter and fusion of the original towns of the American continent and the Colonizing Spaniards. The Day of the Race was established in Argentina in 1917 by decree of president Hipólito Yrigoyen, as a reaffirmation of the Latin American identity against the United States and the Monroe Doctrine. Later the date was instituted as a national holiday in several countries including El Salvador, Colombia, Mexico, Ecuador and Peru. It must be noted that several countries honor this day with different names including Day of the Cultures in Costa Rica, Day of the Discovery of two worlds in Chile, Day of Indigenous Resistance in Venezuela and Day of the American Cultural Diversity in Argentina.

In Spain, this date was originally celebrated as "Celebration of the Race", but since 1958 it has been regarded as Spain's National Day and celebrated under the name "National Celebration of Spain" or "Hispanic Day".

In the United States a similar celebration in observed under the name "Columbus Day", although it was first popularized as a celebration of the heritage of the Italian-American communities, currently is a Federal Holiday commemorated on the second Monday in October.

The "Day of the Race" marks the beginning of the relationship between Europe and The Americas, which would later allow America to receive great cultural and technological influence from the old world, and in exchange allowed Europe to perceive the cultural wealth, technology, and richness of the "New World."

The continent discovered on October 12th, 1492 was not understood to be a new world at the time, in fact Christopher Columbus thought that he had arrived in India. After Columbus' voyage, other smaller trips financed by the Spanish crown were organized, like those of Núñez de Balboa who crossed the Straits of Panama on foot and found the Pacific Ocean (1513); and the one of Francisco Hernandez of Cordova (1517) and Juan de Grijalva (1518) who crossed the Mexican coasts. The Florentine Am&ecute;rigo Vespuccio (1451-1512) crossed the North coast of South America, the coasts of Brazil and the south of the Patagonia, and verified definitively that the place where Columbus had arrived was not India, but a new continent to which he gave his name: America.