El Dia de la Raza

Dia de la Raza doesn't really translate well into English. And really, it's a pretty terrible holiday. It translates literally to "Race Day" so the CEDEI School took it as an opportunity to march in Central Park in the name of racial equality. What el Dia de la Raza actually celebrates is the day Christopher Colombus "discovered" the Americas, beginning a still unending racism, discrimination and general bias based on skin color for all the hispanic people of the world. It celebrates the day that began the eventual enslavement of entire peoples of whom almost all of South and Central Americans still consider themselves. So they call it Race Day and celebrate it. They used to get the day off from work, because it's a national holiday, but the indigenous peoples of Ecuador protested and now you still have to work even though it's still a national holiday. But either way, the kids dressed up and we had a march and presentations on the central square and in a building just off the square. Here are some cute pictures.