W<\/span>On October 12, 1492, the ships chartered by the Crown of Castile under the command of Admiral Christopher Columbus touched down in what would later be known as America. This date is so charged with symbolism that it is part of the civic calendars of almost all the countries of the subcontinent, referring to the relationship between the "mother country" and the republics, their "daughters" despite the sacred independence.<\/p>\n In almost all these countries this commemoration appeared at the beginning of the century xx<\/span> as "Columbus Day", in reference to that crossbreeding of blood and cultures that supposedly defined the Spanish occupation, and with that name it continues to be celebrated in Mexico and Colombia. It was also known as \u201cHispanic Day\u201d \u2013as it was celebrated in Spain and continues to be done in Guatemala\u2013, which seems to appeal to a Creole and sentimental version of the Commonwealth<\/em> British. But the ups and downs of ethnic politics brought changes after the attempt to celebrate in 1992 "the Encounter of Two Worlds", and thus the date was named in Chile. Indigenous pressure for recognition and the multicultural imprint of that decade can be seen in Costa Rica, where it is called \u201cDay of Cultures\u201d, or in Argentina, where \u201cRespect for Cultural Diversity\u201d is celebrated. The advances of the decolonizing left in the south of the continent make Ecuador celebrate "Interculturality and Plurinationality", in Venezuela "Indigenous Resistance" and in Bolivia "Decolonization."<\/p>\n Thus, October 12 reflects that unresolved aspect of social organization in Latin America, that internal gap product of oligarchic exclusion that was renewed with Creole liberalism and peripheral capitalism, it was sought to redeem with homogenizing popular nationalisms and that now the same indigenous and Afro-descendants question their recreation in the neoliberal context.<\/p>\n We take this date to ask three social scientists how the always conflictive relationship of the Latin American republics with their colonial origins, with the original populations and with the Creole legacy in their formation as nations occurs in their respective countries.<\/p>\n \n What role do race and racism play in the construction of society and in the myth of the nation, and specifically, what do these high-sounding names show and hide about the presence of \u201cwhite\u201d, Europe and the West, and about the absence of the original or the African in the national imaginary?<\/h2>\n