Abya Yala is the name chosen in 1992 by the indigenous nations of “America” to refer to America instead of naming it after Amerigo Vespucci.
Amerigo Vespucci is the first to have expressed the notion of a new world by speaking of the continent in which the Spanish-Italians landed, those who thought they were in India.
The expression “Abya Yala” comes from the language of the Kunas, an indigenous people of Panama who use this expression to name America. The words mean “land in its full maturity”. Aymara Takir Mamani indigenous leader has proposed that all indigenous peoples in the Americas name their homelands by this name, and use this name in their documents and oral declarations, arguing that “to place foreign names on our cities, towns and continents is to subjugate our identity to the will of our invaders and their heirs.”
Abya Yala (America)
