There were beauty queens, fireworks, acrobats, a parade, politicians, musical icons, and tens of thousands of revelers including us and Mexican President Felipe Calderón who delivered the traditional ode to Miguel Hidalgo’s September 16, 1810 call to arms which sparked the Mexican War of Independence. It’s a speech that’s delivered by the sitting President on the eve of every Mexican Independence Day, but this year’s 200th anniversary bicentennial celebration of independence from Spain made everything even more special.
No moment was more emotional than the traditional grito. From the balcony of the Presidential Palace on the Zócalo in Mexico City, the sitting President repeated a cry of patriotism, called the Grito Mexicano, which is based on the Grito de Dolores. Then the President rings the bell and the crowd goes wild.
Check it out in our video, below.
Mexican President Felipe Calderón rings the bell on the balcony of the Presidential Palace and issues the Grito Mexicano as part of Mexico’s celebrations marking 200 years of independence from Spain.
The Grito Mexicano
Around 6 am on September 16, 1810, Hidalgo, a Roman Catholic priest, ordered the church bells to be rung and he gathered his congregation. He then addressed the people encouraging them to rise up with these words:
My children: a new dispensation comes to us today. Will you receive it? Will you free yourselves? Will you recover the lands stolen by three hundred years ago from your forefathers by the hated Spaniards? We must act at once… Will you defend your religion and your rights as true patriots? Long live our Lady of Guadalupe! Death to bad government! Death to the gachupines!
The English translation of the 2010 version of the grito, as delivered by President Calderón earlier tonight, goes like this:
Mexicans!
Long Live the Heroes that gave us our 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 the Independence Bicentennial!
Long Live the Centennial of the Revolution!
Long Live Mexico!
Long Live Mexico!
Long Live Mexico!
Read more about travel in Mexico
Viva! A great video… Wow, do I wish I was there. Celebrate in style.
stay adventurous, Craig
Thanks Craig. We’re enjoying your Bicentennial blog series.
Wow, what an incredible experience! And the video! WOW! I’m so happy for you to have seen all that. Fantastic.
Thanks Andy. Getting the press passes that gave us access was no easy feat. After 3 weeks of runaround trying to sort it out, it was’t untill 4pm that we finally sorted it out. We had to do a Chinese firedrill in the middle of bumper to traffic so that Karen could drive back to the hotel while I sprited 2+ miles to the press office to pick up the passes…at 4:50, 10 miutes before the office closed. All good, no, GREAT in the end.
Como quisiera star alli oh en General Teran oh en Monterrey!!! Amo a MEXICO un chingo!!! Vi los festajes live por Univision they were amazing!!! Congrats Mexico on 200yrs!!!
I so envy you being there for the Grito! I was thinkingabout it all day yesterday (it was the 16th here in China) and wishing I was in Mexico instead. I am surprised by one thing though; earlier this year when I was in Dolores Hidalgo, I was told that Calderon was scheduled to give the Grito there this year, rather than in the D.F. Maybe he did it both places in the same day?
Hi Barbra, Calderon went to Dolores yesterday morning and did the Grito again there.
Lucky! I wish I was in Mexico for this celebration. Instead, I watched it from my tv with my husband as he chanted Viva!