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Today is Columbus Day and in many locations Indigenous Peoples' Day.
It is a day to celebrate the beginning of the modern world when Christopher Columbus first landed on the Island of San Salvador in modern-day, The Bahamas.
From there, Columbus would set up on the Island of Hispaniola which includes both the Dominican Republic and Haiti, eventually putting the capital in Santo Domingo.
Of course for many people, today is the day that we recognize the birth of Latin Americans, the largest ethnic group of the New World.
Prior to Columbus, the idea of Latin America could not exist, as there were no Latin languages on either continent.
But, it is also a day to celebrate the founding of both modern-day continents and the founding of Christianity in the Americas, our main religion across each nation.
It is further a day to celebrate Catholic and Italian acceptance in the USA as many earlier Catholic immigrants suffered much abuse when they moved to the USA.
Yet, it is also a day to celebrate the Indigenous peoples of America, as nearly 50% of the Americas includes people with Amerindian ancestry.
These descendents largely are Catholic, and many have become saints.
One such saint, Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, would come to see Our Lady of Guadeloupe, the patron of the Americas.
Therefore, our most important religious image and event in our continents show how important the indigenous story is to our history.
The Indigenous are not only past, but also our present since the modern Americas began in 1492.
There are of course many who will suggest that you should leave out recognition of either holiday, but we must remember that it is often best to celebrate those before us for making us who we are today.
If you are someone in the Americas, you can likely thank Columbus's intuition.
And likewise, you can thank Columbus and the Indigenous for bringing about the path to modern-chocolate bars, tomato sauce on spegghati, vanilla ice cream, and much more.
So, feel free to celebrate both the devout Catholic explorer and the first peoples, both of which are often a good representation of Catholicisim.
The Americas today are the most Christian continents today and we can thank both Christopher Columbus's bravery and the Amerindians for their commitment to our religion.
Cole Kinder is a recent graduate of UCLA in political science with a focus on international relations. He has written one book, Foreign Policy in 4 Hours, Afghanistan 2021, and has written many articles on various websites such as Crisis Magazine. Cole Kinder specializes in international relations, domestic politics, religious studies (Catholicism), Slavic studies, sports, as well as geography.
