Week Ending - Dia de Independencia!

It's been a quiet week(end) here in Lago Wobegon...
I strained the muscles in my right shoulder and it has been too painful to move much. I have an appointment with the chiropractor later in the week, but meanwhile I've been deprived of my most favorite activities - knitting, sewing, cooking, writing. There are two things I can do with only one hand: read and water plants. Thus the low-key weekend.

However, today (September 16th) is Mexican Independence day - the day the revolution to gain freedom from Spain began. The celebration always starts the night before, with a re-entactment at 11pm of the "grito" - the cry to revolution - that the priest of the town of Dolores gave in 1810. It took 10 years for Mexico to be freed from the yoke of Spain, and of course it had to endure further wars to keep its independence from bullying nations like France and the USA. But...

Everywhere in Mexico last night there was a party in the town plaza, so here are a few pictures of our fiesta. Unfortunately my camera isn't really up to the task of night shots so here are the best of the bunch:

Here's the plaza, decked out with flags, and the ever-present Tecate beer tent. As far as I can tell, Tecate is the main sponsor of every fiesta and fair that happens anywhere on the Baja peninsula.


All the plaza lights were changed to show the colors of the Mexican flag: green, white and red. GREEN represents independence and hope, WHITE represents religion (specifically the Catholic Church) and purity, and RED represents the blood of the fallen national heroes and the union of the two races (Spanish/european and native Mexican).


At any town gathering here there are MANY more children than you'd see at a similar gathering in the US. When we go to the Fourth of July parade in Mendocino - a classic small town parade - there are very few children, either in the parade or watching it. Same thing with county fairs. Although Mexico's birth rate is dropping as in all other parts of the world, it's still above replacement level, so when all the tired old countries of the north implode in the next century due to too few children, Mexico - which still values the family over all else - will still be vigorous.


Because there are so many kids in the crowd, the primary vendors were of kid's tchotchkes. I love this stuff - it's cheap and colorful and kids are SO thrilled to get one of these things.


Here's our church, all decked out for its part in the celebration. It's on one end of the plaza, and the theater (a real traditional theater, not a cinema) is on one side:


VIVA MEXICO! VIVA MEXICO! VIVA MEXICO!

P.S. To find out what some of the people in the U.S. did last weekend, go to Wanda's blog, Reinventing Mother.