Mexico celebrates its independence every September 16 with parades, festivals, feasts, parties and more. Mexican flags are everywhere and the main plaza in Mexico City is packed. But what’s the history behind the date of September 16? Who were four important people of Mexican Independence Day?1. Miguel Hidalgo.
2. Martin Cortes.3. Guadalupe Victoria.4.
Vicente Guerrero. Prelude to Mexican Independence:Long before 1810, Mexicans had begun to chafe under Spanish rule. Spain kept a stranglehold on her colonies; only permitting them limited trade opportunities and generally appointing Spaniards (as opposed to native-born Creoles) to important colonial posts. To the north, the United States had won its independence decades before, and many Mexicans felt they could, too. In 1808, Creole patriots saw their chance when Napoleon invaded Spain and imprisoned Ferdinand VII.This allowed Mexican and South American rebels to set up their own governments and yet claim loyalty to the imprisoned Spanish King.
El Grito de Dolores: On September 15, 1810, the conspirators received the bad news: their conspiracy had been found out. Allende was in Dolores at the time and wanted to go into hiding: Hidalgo convinced him that the right option was to go forward. On the morning of the 16th, Hidalgo rang the church bells, summoning the workers from the nearby fields.From the pulpit he announced the revolution: "Know this, my children, that knowing your patriotism, I have put myself at the head of a movement begun some hours ago, to wrest away power from the Europeans and give it to you.
" The people responded enthusiastically. March to Mexico City: Hidalgo, assisted by military man Ignacio Allende, led his army towards Mexico City. Along the way they laid siege to the town of Guanajuato and fought off the Spanish defense at the Battle of Monte de las Cruces.By November he was at the gates of the city itself, with angry army large enough to take it. Yet Hidalgo inexplicably retreated, perhaps turned aside by fears of a large Spanish army coming to reinforce the city.
Fall of Hidalgo: Father Miguel Hidalgo kicked off Mexico's struggle for independence from Spain on September 16, 1810 when he issued his famous "Cry of Dolores" in which he exhorted Mexicans to rise up and throw off Spanish tyranny. For almost a year, Hidalgo led the independence movement, battling Spanish forces in and around Central Mexico.He was captured and executed in 1811, but others picked up the struggle and Hidalgo is today considered the father of the country. Independence of Mexico is won: A few hours before sunrise on September 16, 1810, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, a Creole who was a Catholic priest in the village of Dolores, Guanajuato, ordered the arrest of the Spaniards who lived in Dolores.
He then rang the church bell, which customarily called the townspeople to mass. With the townspeople present, Hidalgo shouted his call to arms against Spain.That famous cry, known as "El Grito," is re-enacted all over present-day Mexico on the night of September 15th. Mexicans celebrate their independence on two consecutive days, the 15th and 16th of September. The independence movement started in earnest the moment Napoleon III, through political sleight-of-hand, proclaimed his brother Joseph Bonapart King of Spain.
Guided by a group of intellectuals opposed to King Joseph’s rule, the Creoles urged their counterparts in the army to renounce their allegiance to the Spaniards.They were warned about the plot by army Creoles who refused to join the insurgents -- Hidalgo among them -- and were on their way to arrest them when Hidalgo called the people to arms, an act which is the subject of some debate among historians. The involvement of the Indians and the mestizos in the war of independence turned what had been a political maneuver into a class struggle. Hidalgo was captured and executed by the Spaniards before Mexico gained its independence.
