¡Viva México! One more anniversary of the beginning of Mexico’s Independence. Let’s celebrate!

¡Viva México! One more anniversary of the beginning of Mexico’s Independence. Let’s celebrate!

In the early morning of September 16, 1810, the priest Don Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla summoned the people of Dolores Hidalgo, through the ringing of the church bells, to take up arms against the Spanish rule.

The period of our history known as the War of Independence begins (strictly speaking) in the early morning of September 16, 1810, when Father Miguel Hidalgo gives the so-called “Grito de Dolores” and ends on September 27, 1821 (11 years later) with the triumphal entry of the Trigarante Army, led by Agustin de Iturbide and Vicente Guerrero, to a jubilant Mexico City. The main objective of this movement (armed and social) was to free our territory from the Spanish yoke and that, in every corner of the Colony, the concept of viceroyalty was completely forgotten.

Mexico’s Independence has several stages, one of the most important of which spans from the Grito de Dolores (September 16, 1810) to the battle of Puente de Calderón (in the current municipality of Zapotlanejo, Jalisco, on January 17, 1811), when the crowd led by Hidalgo -with his famous Guadalupan banner in hand- fought with more passion and courage than strategy, however, he was defeated and captured.

Querétaro, as we all know, is the Cradle of Independence, since it was here that it was born with important characters such as “La Corregidora” Doña Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez, her husband the Corregidor, Hidalgo, Allende, Aldama, the brothers Epigmenio and Emeterio González, among others.

The national holidays bring together thousands of Mexican families, who come to the main squares and centers of the cities, as well as to the city hall buildings to commemorate one more anniversary of the Cry of Independence.

Dolores Bell. The bell that Miguel Hidalgo rang in the early morning of September 16, 1810, to motivate the people to rise up in arms “against the bad Spanish government”, once the War of Independence was over, was kept by later liberal governments as one of the main symbols of the beginning of that important movement. Today, the Dolores bell can be admired, perfectly restored, in a niche located just above the central balcony of the National Palace, in the Historic Center of Mexico City. The President of the Republic in office has the obligation to ring it to revive, before the great public congregated in the Zócalo square on the night of September 15, the cry given with frenzy by Father Hidalgo to initiate the struggle for Independence.

Chronology

Curious facts about the Independence

• In the Act of Independence signed on September 28, 1821, it is established that Mexico would be recognized as an Empire. After the fall of Emperor Iturbide (1823), the act was renewed and instead of saying “Empire”, the term “Republic” was established. That is why Mexico has two acts of independence.
• The bell of the parish of Dolores that Miguel Hidalgo used on the day of the cry was moved in 1896 from Guanajuato to the National Palace in Mexico City by orders of Porfirio Diaz in order to carry out the festivities of that year, since the Oaxacan wanted to ring the original bell that night.
• The full name of the priest Hidalgo was Miguel Gregorio Antonio Ignacio Hidalgo y Costilla y Gallaga Mondarte Villaseñor.
• José María Morelos became a priest at the age of 24, in order to receive an inheritance from his great-grandfather Pedro Pérez Pavón.
• In 1823, it was ordered to gather the heads and bodies of the four main caudillos shot and decapitated in Chihuahua to transfer them with honors to the foot of the Altar of the Kings in the Cathedral of Mexico. The mortal remains remained in the cathedral until their transfer to the Column of Independence in 1926.
• Spain did not recognize Mexico’s Independence until 15 years later.