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Today is Mexico’s Independence Day!
Two hundred years since the start of the Mexican War of Independence, the bells are still tolling for Mexican patriot, Miguel Hidalgo, a Mexican priest whose battle cry uttered on September 16, 1810 at the small town of Dolores (near the Mexican city of Guanajuato) started the revolt against their Spanish colonizers. Hidalgo’s cry became the “Grito de Dolores”, which will later on become, “El Grito de la Independencia”.
This cry is reenacted every year at midnight (between September 15 and 16) throughout Mexico. But nothing can be grander than the President of Mexico reenacting it in the National Palace in Mexico City where he rings the bell and repeats the cry from the balcony of the palace to the huge assembled crowd of half a million people in the Plaza de la Constitution, one of the largest plazas in the world. Hispanics with Mexican roots also celebrate the cry with their own reenactments in their communities throughout the United States.
It is a common misconception among Hispanic communities in the United States that “Cinco de Mayo”, which is another Mexican holiday, is the day of independence for Mexico. “Cinco de Mayo” actually celebrates the Mexican victory over the French Empire in the “Battle of Puebla” which happened on May 5, 1862.
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