10/13/2025
Today, October 12th, 2025, marks forty years of América, 1985. Plaza Colón Madrid, Spain, 10 min. Documentary photograph. Photo: Gilberto Villamil by Colombian Artist María Evelia Marmolejo.
"In 1985 when the artist was two months pregnant she self-exiled to Madrid. That same year, Marmolejo heard of the preparations for the celebrations of the 500 years of the discovery of America. As a result, the same year on October 12th, she did the performance América, at the Plaza Colón in Madrid, in protest to these coming celebrations. Marmolejo proposed that instead of a celebration, this date should be established as a day of mourning, because it marked the beginning of colonialism in America and the death of 67 million natives. For the action, Marmolejo distributed a sheet with excerpts from Fray Bartolomé de la Casas’, Breve Destrucción de las Indias, (written in 1542 and published in 1552) describing the destruction and violence of the Spaniards against the Indians. She wrote the word “América” on the pedestal of the Colón statue, with blood from cuts in her fingers, and then broke a mirror her size and placed the pieces in a basket and distributed them amongst the public, as a symbol of the return of the mirrors that were brought to America during the Conquest. The police arrested the artist for a few hours." Text by Cecilia Fajardo-Hill.
