Columbus Day and technology between the new world and the old. The landing is celebrated as ""Columbus Day"" in the United States but the name varies on the international spectrum. In Latin America, October 12th is known as ""Día de la Raza"" or (Day of the Race). Some countries such as Spain refer the holiday as ""Día de la Hispanidad"" and ""Fiesta Nacional"" where it is also the religious festivity of "la Virgen del Pilar." Belize and Uruguay celebrate it as "Día de las Américas" (Day of the Americas). Argentina's former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner officially adopted ""Día del Respeto a
Columbus Day strain of criticism of Columbus Day focuses on the character of Columbus himself. In time for the 2004 observation of the day, the final volume of a compendium of Columbus-era documents was published by the University of California, Los Angeles's Medieval and Renaissance Center. It stated that Columbus, while a brilliant mariner, exploited and enslaved the indigenous population. Spelman College historian Howard Zinn described some of the details of how Columbus personally ordered the enslavement and mutilation of the native Arawak people in a bid to repay his investors. Journalist and media critic Norman Solomon reflects, in "Columbus Day: A