Bicentennial

Last Thursday, Sept 16, was Mexican Independence Day. Last year I celebrated with a fellow volunteer in Oaxaca, but this year several of us went to Mexico City to participate in the biggest party of the last 200 years. Not only was it just Independence Day, but it was the 200th anniversary of the Independence from Spain, and the 100th anniversary of the Revolution that ended dictatorship in Mexico. So it was going to be a big party, in the capital of the republic!!

Because of fears of violence on this noteworthy day, there was a ton of security in DF (Mexico City), and they actually limited the number of people allowed into each venue. The main venue, where the Grito is done in the evening of Sept 15 (Viva Mexico!), was the Zocalo, the plaza in front of the federal palace, and only 50,000 people were going to be allowed in. So, we camped out. For five hours or so before the actual event. And even then, we were late and didn't get great spots. But, they had giant screens set up to show the main events, and various bands and dancers to fill the time. I could list all of the things that I saw (floats, dance numbers, giant statues, etc.), but the most impressive was the fireworks display. I heard reports that 16,000 fireworks were used, or 8 tons, but whatever the actual number, the display lasted a good twenty minutes or longer. It was huge! Some random pics and videos of the events follow.









Also, the following day, Sept 16, was the military parade. A huge number of soldiers, medical corps, and students, representing every branch of the Mexican military, paraded through the main streets of the city. Not something you see in the US, but it happens in all the major cities in Mexico for Independence Day. The parade lasted several hours and included their military vehicles, boats, and fly-overs. We must have seen at least 20,000 soldiers marching in DF alone! Even some of the embassies (including the US and China) sent delegations to march. Again, random collection of pics and videos follows.

Independence Day, Méxican Style!

I just got back from 10 days of vacation in the state of Oaxaca, alternating between Oaxaca City and the coastline. It was my first ¨real¨ vacation so far, and it was great! I could probably fill several weeks worth of blogs, but I'm going to focus on the major holiday last week and see how much other stuff I can post later this week...



The big event during my vacation was El Grito, or The Shout. This happens in every city in México on the evening of September 15th, Méxican Independence Day (although the official holiday is Sept 16). Each city celebrates it a little bit differently, but in Oaxaca, the town center, or zocalo, had several stages set up for the festivities. Live bands were playing on all of them, starting around 8 PM. Around 10 PM the zocalo started becoming packed with people. People were wearing giant sombreros and fake mustaches (some sort of tradition, couldn´t quite figure out if it was anything other than a touristy gimmick). Around 11 PM, the governor appeared and started giving his speech, celebrating the heroes of Méxican history and the Independence. Supposedly the ¨official¨ Grito occurs in México City at midnight, so all other cities in México have to do theirs before midnight. Everyone in the crowd shouted along with ¡Viva Domingez! ¡Viva México! ¡Viva Oaxaca! The fun part began when everyone pulled out the spray-cans of foam and threw around hollowed-out egg shells filled with confetti. Some guys directly behind me had a couple cans of foam, so I got hit pretty good.



There were also castillos, tall structures with fireworks strung on them. They go off in several stages, with different parts lighting up at different times. Here is a video of one of the stages. You could get pretty close, which is amazingly unsafe, since the sparks and even some fireworks were flying everywhere!



This was then followed by fireworks in the sky over the basilica. All in all, we were out til 1:30 AM, and we didn't even go back to the zocalo for more live music!!

We don't quite do anything like this in the states for Independence Day. The closest equivalent we have is probably New Year's, and I think that is centered on the big cities. Even the tiny beach town in Oaxaca that we went to later in the week had an Independence Day celebration with a grito and castillo's!

Saltillo and Independence

Next week rings in Independence Day in México. Sept 16th (really the evening of the 15th) marks the start of the Méxican revolution against Spain in 1810. Lots of street vendors are selling green / white / red gear, and even the local mall is getting into the act.



On Friday this week, we were invited to the US Consulate in Monterrey for a town hall meeting. The new Ambassador to México, Carlos Pascual, was in town for a conference, and he wanted to meet us. When we showed up to the Consulate, everyone wanted to know about PC México--they didn´t even know we had a program in México! All of the consular people that I met were really nice, and we even went to a reception at the consular general´s house (the head of the consulate) afterwards.

In a couple of weeks a fellow volunteer is getting married to his Méxican novia, and so we had a pretty cool (but tame) cookout / despedida for him. A fellow volunteer and I traveled from Monterrey to Saltillo for the event, and I had time to visit the Museo de las Aves and Centro Cultural Vito Alessio Robles. This eagle / snake model at the Museo mirrors the image on the Méxican flag.



The Centro Cultural has the largest mural in all of México! It chronicles the history of Saltillo, and here is just a small taste.