Happy birthday, Mexico!

Happy bicentennial! This week, Mexico turned 200 years old. This year is actually a dual centennial—200 years of independence and 100 years since the Revolution of 1910. Some of the larger cities had very elaborate celebrations over the last few days, and even the small towns like the one I live in celebrated the occasion. In the US we treat Cinco de Mayo as the major Mexican holiday and many people seem to think that it is like our 4th of July holiday. In Mexico, the 16 de Septiembre is a much bigger holiday and is the day that celebrates Mexican independence.

In 1810, a group that included Father Miguel Hidalgo was planning a revolt against Spain to take place late in the year. The Spanish learned of the plot and ordered the arrest of Hidalgo. Hidalgo learned of the arrest orders and called his people to mass by ringing the church bells on the night of September 15. At this mass, he rallied his people to fight by giving a famous speech that is known as the Grito (a grito is a yell), saying things like “Viva Mexico!” and “Viva la independencia!” Each year on September 15th at the independence celebrations, people recreate this famous shout. This is usually done in the town plaza after the church bells ring for the 11pm hour. September 16th is the day observed as Independence Day. Celebrations include things like parades and games for children.

This year in Etzatlan, they had bicentennial activities for about a week, including things like concerts and performances by dance groups. Here in Oconahua there were decorations put up in the town plaza, and last weekend had an exposition of old photographs from the town history and live music in the plaza on Saturday night. On the 15th there was live music in the evening and, of course, the Grito at the appropriate time. On the 16th there was a parade. The parade was led by a brass band and mostly consisted of group after group of school children marching with their classes and wearing their school uniforms. Some of the classes went a bit further and dressed in costumes to look like people from the early 1800s.
This week my photos are 3 different groups that did recreations of Hidalgo’s famous Grito. Each group had someone dressed as Hidalgo (wearing a wig with long white hair or with a bald top and long white sides) and carrying a banner with the Virgin of Guadalupe on it. The rest of the groups usually consisted of girls wearing fancy dresses and boys wearing military sorts of suits. A few groups included people dressed as the campesinos (the country people) and carrying torches or weapons like machetes and pitch forks. My favorites were the group of tiny kids who included some boys with big fake sideburns and the group of high schoolers with the girls wearing what looked suspiciously like their fancy dresses from their 15th birthday parties.