I learned from my host family that the most important part of Independence Day takes place on the 15th of September. This event is called the Grito, or literally "the shout." The history behind this is that the leader of the independence movement, Miguel Hidalgo rang the church bells in the town of Dolores Hidaglo, summoning all to fight for their independence. This has turned into the most intense display of nationalism that I have ever seen. Every person in Mexico is either out in their town centers to participate in the Grito or they are watching the proceedings in Mexico City on their tvs. Regardless, everyone in Mexico is awake and ready to yell "Viva Mexico" at 11:00 pm the night of the 15th.
The town of Dolores Hidalgo is in Guanajuato state, so needless to say, as the capital city, Guanajuato gets really excited about Independence Day. The Grito is held at the Alhondiga which is a huge square building that used to be a granery. Now it is a museum, but it has a huge plaza out front that can accommodate a lot of people. So, my friend Jessica and I decided to go down to the Alhondiga and see what was going on. We arrived early and wandered around looking at the decorations. Then we saw that there were a bunch of food vendors set up with huge tents across the street from the Alhondiga, so we headed over there to get a bite to eat.
We were immediately attacked by several different people. "Gueras!" "Aqui! tacos y enchiladas!" "Dos? Sientate aqui, dos asientos!" "Tenemos posuele, flautas y gorditas!" No one asked us if we were hungry, instead they commanded us to sit at their tables. So we sat, and proceeded to eat some of the best food that I have had here. I ate tacos dorados con papas y bistek. Basically, they are small tortillas stuffed with potates and then fried so the tortilla is crispy and then they were served with ground beef mixed with onions and topped with lettuce, tomatos, queso and crema de vaca (which is kind of like sour cream, just not sour). It was incredible, and to top it all off, I had churros for dessert. Completely Mexican food on a completely Mexican day.
At about 10:30 the place started to fill up with people wearing the large sombreros, holding Mexican flags and making all sorts of noises with the plastic horns. The president (governor) of Guanajuato arrived and made a short speech. Then as time ran out and it was 11:00 a voice over the loudspeaker began shouting "Viva Hidalgo!" "Viva Allende!" "Viva Pipila!" "Viva Guanajuato!" and finally "VIVA MEXICO!" Between each shout out, the crowd responded with "Viva!" and when they finally reached the most important "VIVA MEXICO!" everyone went nuts. They were all screaming and cheering and waving their flags and spraying silly string. It was absolute chaos, and then to add to it all, they started the fireworks. It was so much fun to be a part of! I can't even begin to imagine what next year will be like with because Mexico will be celebrating 200 years of independence from Spain.
While all this was very clearly excitement for the Mexican holiday, I was surprised by how large a presence the USA was. For example, the vendors selling the Mexico paraphernalia had stickers that not only had the Mexican flag, but also the US flag and the Canadian flag. All the government buildings were flying these three flags as well. And it seemed really odd, but during the week there were several people wearing shirts that had US independence day themes. I even heard one of the cafes playing "America the Beautiful" as their background music. So while Mexico has an strong atmosphere of nationalism, there is a lot of evidence about US influence especially through NAFTA.
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