Independence?

Independence Angel / Angel de la Independencia

Independence Heroes / Héroes de la Independencia

Independence?

Preparing the mediatic show for the celebration of the bicentennial of independence

In 2010 Mexico will celebrate its 200 years of Independence with national and local public events. The Bicentennial or Bicentenario actually takes in two celebrations: the first being the Bicentennial of two hundred years since Independence (1810) and the second the no less important Centennial of 100 years since Mexican Revolution of 1910.

Mexican Independence Day celebrates the events and people that eventually resulted in independence from Spain, the country that had control over the territory of New Spain, as it was also known then. Fueled by three centuries of oppresion and sparked by a call to revolt by the respected Catholic priest Hidalgo, the first call to arms was made in the village of Dolores, in the state of Guanajuato. The uprising pitted the poor indigenous indians and mixed mestizo groups against the priviledged classes of Spanish descent, and pushed them into a violent and bloody battle for freedom from Spain.

Mexico is facing - once again - one of those defining moments in its young and fledgling democracy. It wasn't that long ago, July 6, 2006 to be exact, that the Federal Electoral Institute in Mexico announced the final vote count in the presidential election, resulting in a narrow margin of 0.58 percentage points of victory for right wing Felipe Calderón Hinojosa (PAN). That same year the left wing PRD (Revolutionary Democratic Party) led by Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador took to the streets in massive protests demanding a vote by vote recount and accusing the whole world of being silent witnesses to a massive fraud and conspiracy.

The widespread expectations among Mexicans that a long-awaited democracy would solve the country's problems are now confronted with the reality of an institutional system that is not only broken and corrupt at its core, but that is consolidating its power with unnerving ease and at an alarmingly fast pace. (The Huffington Post)

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