A Modern-Day Interpretation of Why Mexican Independence Day is a Big Deal Russell Granger - Vimex
go to original September 15, 2012

Mexican Independence (Bicentennial Office of the Instituto Nacional de Estudios Historicos de las Revoluciones de Mexico)

In a nutshell, after Columbus discovered "America" the Spanish came to the continent to find riches in the "new land."

In 1521, Hernán Cortés showed up - like a flash mob with about 500 Spanish soldiers and decided to attack and conquer the civilizations of Olmec, Teotihuacan, Maya and the Toltec. The powerful Aztecs were currently ruling Mesoamérica, so Hernán went after them first.

On August 13, 1521, the Spanish - in cahoots with many indigenous allies raided the city/state of Tenochtitlan, the last of the Aztec empire to be conquered. It was done.

How did the Spanish get the indigenous population to help? Easy: life under Aztec rule was tough; the Spanish convinced the locals that their lives would be better under the Spanish than it was with the Aztecs.

The indigenous population soon found that the Spanish made the Aztecs look like Maria Von Trapp.

Essentially, the locals got duped, the Spaniards got the country, and the name was changed to Nueva España, (New Spain).

The following years were devastating for the local population. Between the workload of forced labor, poverty, and the epidemic causing diseases the Spanish introduced, the indigenous population was nearly decimated. What's that mean? Well, let's say a country’s indigenous population in the year 1500 is 20 million, and in 1800 it's 1 million, just my opinion, but I'd say that qualifies as decimation.

So now it’s 1808, and time to introduce you to the middle, uppermiddle class population called the Criollos. These cats were children of Spanish heritage, but born in "NewSpain," and they didn't like the way things were going.

Meanwhile, Napoleon (yes, the guy with the complex) invaded Spain and made his brother, José, the King.

José wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, and this gave the Criollos the opportunity to stick their heads out the window and shout, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!"

Thus, began the plans for a big to-do, later to be named, "The Mexican War of Independence."

Planning a revolution is no easy task, fortunately the Criollos were using Pinterest 0.0 and had pinned a few of their favorites. On board 1 was an outline of democracy, liberty and equality by French philosophers Rousseau, Montesquieu, and Voltaire.

On board 2 was The United States War of Independence. Not too shabby, I'd say. What's on your Pinterest?

So they planned the revolution and set the date for Tuesday October 2, 1810. The invitations were about to be printed, when in early September something terrible happened; someone slipped. That's right, the secret got out and soon everybody knew about it.

Some say Mark Zuckerberg is to blame because he didn't have the right filters in place, and that had they been using Google+ they'd never have had a problem; this is easily disputed, so I'll stay out of it. The fact is, loose lips sink ships, and that's what was about to happen to Mexico's Independence.

Say you're planning a revolution, and suddenly find out your permits will be revoked because of a technicality. What do you do? I'll tell you, you get even smarter and start a private group, only inviting close, trustworthy friends.

And that's exactly what happened. No one is sure who started the group, but it included a bunch of really cool people, some you may know: Ignacio Allende and Doña Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez. And get this; they had  a priest in their group! How many priests are in your groups? Yup, thought so...

Okay, okay, relax I'll tell you about the priest, his name was Father Miguel Hidalgo and from what I've ascertained, he was THE guy.

Why was Father Hidalgo the guy? When the news of the revolt got out, the Criollos struggled with the notion of canceling the whole thing. Father Hidalgo and his peeps got together and decided to step things up and instead of cancelling, they'd kick the party off early.

Late on the night of September 15, 1810, Father Hidalgo and friends decided the moment had arrived. He and his peeps walked down to his church - yes his church, not someone else's church; Father Hidalgo was the real deal - in the town of Dolores, and at 1:00 am, in the early hours of September 16, he rang the heck out of the church bell, thus summoning the community.

So the whole town came down to see what was up, and that's when Father Hidalgo gave a speech called El Grito de Dolores, and said some of the most powerful words spoken on this land:

Mexicans!
Long live the heroes
that gave us the Fatherland!
Long live Hidalgo!
Long live Morelos!
Long live Josefa Ortiz de Dominguez!
Long live Allende!
Long live Aldama and Matamoros!
Long live National Independence!
Long Live Mexico! Long Live Mexico! Long Live Mexico!

Of course, that's a paraphrase, it turns out the local stenographer was on vacation or something, and no one wrote down what Father Hidalgo actually said.

As I understand it, "El Grito de Dolores" translates to either, "The Shout from (the town of) Dolores" or "The Cry of Pain." Take any meaning you want, that's powerful stuff.

So that's how it started. From there it took more than a decade, countless people dying, lives ruined, property destroyed, and much more.

On September 28, 1821, Mexico enacted the Declaration of Independence of the Mexican Empire, and Spain was officially out.

Wait, you just said September 28th, not September 16th, what's up with that?

Good question. On September 16, 1810, a spark was ignited. A spark based on a decision; a decision to be free, a freedom for future generations that was worth fighting, and even dying for. It was that courageous decision that prompted action. It was the initial "coming together" that allowed Mexico to pull it off. That's what's celebrated:  courage, love of country, and alliance, it's awesome, and it really is a big deal.