On September 2 when I was in Zamora, the third largest city in the state of  Michoacan, I saw a scene that repeats itself annually there and, mas o menos, similarly throughout the country’s towns and cities, small and large. Its beautiful and traditional plaza, adjoining palacio de gobierno/city hall, and nearby portals had just been adorned with  strings of light bulbs and a sparkling presentation of green, white, and red decorations including  silhouetted portraits of three of the mythically beloved “conspirators“- Miguel Hidalgo, Ignacio Allende, and Dona Josefa Ortiz de Dominguez. Close by, numerous vendors in push carts were hawking multiple sizes of Mexico’s national green, white, and red flags along with like colored plastic horns, toy drums, toy guitars, matracas/traditional wooden noisemakers, pinwheels, china poblana dresses for young girls and china poblana dolls, and straw wide brimmed and high crowned sombreros with “viva Mexico” written on them; the only patriotic items that were being sold that were not green, white, and red were black charro dolls and golden round plastic national seals. In various sections of that city I also saw overpasses decorated in the national colors along  with posts draped with banners proclaiming “fiestas patrias”/celebrations of the homeland. Some of its restaurants had also just begun to feature such (once again!) “national" dishes like mole poblano and the green, white, and red chiles en nogada. You see,  the first of September is  the start of “primer dia del mes patrio”/the month of our nation and Zamora  along with the rest of the country  was making preparations for  16 de Septiembre more commonly  known as Mexico’s Independence Day.

By September 5 the small town and municipality where I live, Churintzio, Michoacan was also well on its way in getting ready for the country’s most celebrated of all of its secular holidays. Not only were the zocalo which abuts the aptly named town's main street, Calle Independencia, and the palacio de gobierno decked out in red, white, and green but many of the town’s homes, particularly on their windows, balconies, and roofs, had begun to display the national colors mostly in the form of flags. I guess it was a little too early for the cars and other vehicles to also show their patriotic colors but by the 15th of September many of them would also. Moreover, the school children had commenced practicing their marching and drum and bugle arrangements, with as always some of the most discordant bugling known to humankind, in preparation of their participation of the big parade on the 16th. At the plaza, during the Monday tianguis/open air market, a vendor was selling Independence Day souvenirs similar to those sold in Zamora.

Before discussing the celebrations of Independence Day, a little historical background would be helpful. In the early morning hours of September 16, 1810, in the town of Dolores, Guanajuato (later to be renamed Dolores Hidalgo), Miguel Hidalgo, the town’s 57 year old creole parish priest rang the church bell and then beseeched the attendees of the following mass to join with him in taking arms against the Spanish colonial rulers. The exact words of this most famous of all Mexican speeches remain unknown as there seems to be as many versions of it as there are historians who have written about it but this is for certain; that speech, has become iconically known as “el grito de Dolores"/ the cry of independence! Thus, was the start of Mexico’s War of Independence. Although Hidalgo and coconspirator Ignacio Allende who was also in Dolores at the time of Hidalgo’s address would be captured and executed within ten months, the war would bloodily wage on a total of eleven years until it officially ended on September 27, 1821, precisely 300 years after the Spanish first began the conquest/colonization of Mexico and the rest of Mesoamerica.

Now, Dia de la Independencia is actually a two day affair held on September 15 and 16 reverently and joyously observed throughout all of Mexico, with, of course, the grandest of all of the celebrations occurring in the nation’s capital, Mexico City. It is there on the 15th that the country’s president in front of hundreds of thousands of people assembled in the massive zocalo reenacts “el grito” - additionally, at least once in his six year term of office, the president will by tradition do the same in Dolores Hidalgo. Yet, what is just about to be described as happening in Churintzio is quite representative of the celebratory events that occur in Mexico as a whole, albeit some being larger in scope and scale and others less so.

On the evening of September 15 starting around 8PM the plaza will start to fill up with both residents of the town and citizens from the municipality’s surrounding villages. A local percussion and brass band will play stirring music from the gazebo which is totally draped in Mexican flags. In front of the city hall that has a stage set-up for the occasion there will be numerous speeches, a costumed charro singing ranchera/mariachi-like songs, and the presentation of Senorita Patria and her court. At approximately 9PM a group of about 80 runners wearing green, white, and red uniforms will run throughout the town ending up at the plaza and the lead runner carrying a torch will light a larger torch that is near the stage. Also, there are vendors selling those same Independence Day souvenirs and balloons along with vendors selling bags of confetti and streamers.

At 11PM, the moment that all of the people have been waiting for, the municipality’s el presidente/mayor wearing (once again per tradition) a guayabera will have the church bell rung and then will shout forth “el grito.” El presidente will individually yell out the names of the heroes of the War of Independence- Hidalgo, Morelos, Dona Josefa, Allende, Aldama, and Metamoros- with each name eliciting from the crowd a raucous “viva.” After hollering "viva nuestra independencia" with an accompanying "viva" from the crowd, el presidente shouts “viva Mexico” three times with the assemblage responding in kind. Finally, the church bell will ring again, flags will be waved, confetti and streamers will be hurled, horns will be tooted, drums will be banged, matracas will be rattled, the national anthem will be sung, and an impressive display of fireworks will be shot off. Inevitably, this being Churintzio, at some point that night away from the plaza and the police station located in the city hall some machos will also be shooting off their pistols into the air.

The following day September 16, is a statuatory/paid holiday when virtually nobody works in Churintzio except for the city workers who are responsible for cleaning up the plaza which is blanketed by layer upon layer of confetti and streamers (not to mention an overflow of refuse from the night before). There will be a parade that starts around 9AM. The participants in the parade who number in the high hundreds are from Churintzio and its outlying villages as are the thousands of spectators; the parade features el presidente carrying the Mexican flag, numerous student bands in uniform, an adult marching band, a float with Senorita Patria and her court, the municipal workers marching together, and always at the very end for practical considerations, horsemen on their trained horses.

For those of you who may still erroneously think that Cinco de Mayo is Mexico’s Independence Day celebration, it decidedly is not; it only commemorates the Battle of Puebla which was fought on May 5, 1862 when the Mexican army defeated the French army (with Mexico eventually losing the war!) and although a civic/non-paid holiday, it is hardly commemorated within the country at all. No, it is the 16 de Septiembre’s two day patriotic celebrations that are the most anticipated, cherished, honored, and observed in the country- even more so than 20 de Noviembre which commemorates the start of the Mexican Revolution in 1910. I hope that I have not confused you with all those historically significant dates as Mexico is a country steeped in patriotic tradition and fervor. At any rate, viva Mexico! viva Mexico! viva Mexico!