Alex Trelinski
SPAIN’S Dia de la Hispanidad is an annual national bank holiday that falls this Saturday- October 12.
It coincides with the celebration of Christopher Columbus’ first voyage to the Americas, with the USA celebrating it as Columbus Day.
It is also known as National Armed Forces day in Spain, with a big military parade in Madrid and air force planes painting Spanish flags across the capital’s skies.
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The army, navy, air force, Guardia Civil and even the Spanish Legionnaires, accompanied by their mascot goat – march down Madrid’s Paseo de la Castellana watched by the Royal family, and Spain’s leading politicians.
But it’s not just Madrid that the event is celebrated.
Malaga hosts a military procession, while Huelva holds a celebration and in Zaragoza a fiesta takes place dedicated to Our Lady of the Pilar, the patron saint of the Guardia Civil and the Hispanic world.
In recent years though, there has been a movement against connecting the day with Christopher Columbus- who was Italian- due to him being regarded as a symbol of Spanish colonialism.
Some argue that marking Columbus Day is an outdated celebration of the genocide that followed his discovery of the ‘New World’.
Others still associate the military processions on the day as a hangover of Franco’s regime when it was used to demonstrate the dictator’s military might.
Those in Catalunya who support independence for the region are also critical of the National Day, with many councils and companies refusing to observe it.
