It is the stirring 1810 speech of Father Miguel Hidalgo, the parish priest in Dolores, that is still reenacted in the plazas of Mexico's villages and cities in the September 15 Independence Eve celebrations.
With the urgent clanging of the church bells in the middle of the night of September 15, 1910, Hidalgo summoned the parishioners to a meeting in which he pleaded that it was time for the indigenous and poor to retaliate against the Spanish-born and the upper class, who had ruled, exploited and oppressed the poor of Mexico for ten generations.
The people of central Mexico respected Hidalgo, who had been breaking laws and angering authorities in order to teach the poor of his parish manufacturing techniques and horticulture, helping them plant orchards to improve their incomes and lives.
The movement toward Mexican independence from the Spanish caste system and oppression had been growing since Napoleon’s conquest had removed King Ferdinand from the Spanish throne. A group of Querétaro intellectuals planned to act against the Spanish in December, but by September, information leaks left Hidalgo just three options: he could await arrest; flee Dolores and hide from authorities; or call on the Indian, mestizo (mixed blood peasants) and criollo (Mexican-born Spaniards) forces and fight the Spanish troops. He called to the common people, tapping into 300 years of simmering anger, hurt and resentment.
While the passionate text of Hidalgo’s grito (cry for freedom) which stirred the farmers and villagers to battle that night was not recorded into history, it ended, as do today's Grito ceremonies with the rousing cries: “Mexicanos, Viva (long live) Mexico! Viva la Virgin of Guadalupe!
Within days, the villagers of Dolores had joined with the forces of General Ignacio Allende in San Miguel de Grande (later renamed to honor the General). When these troops were joined by disgruntled farmers of Guanajuato, the untrained army swelled to over 1,000 strong by the end of the first week. In a month there were 50,000 mestizos armed with machetes, knives, slings, hoes, and clubs. By the end of October, there were 60,000. Untrained and ill fed, the men’s intense anger and hatred led them again and again against the well-trained and outfitted Spanish army and artillery.
The war continued for years, in an effort that eventually saw 80,000 Mexicans take up weapons, most of them in guerrilla bands, fighting in isolated areas. Eventually, it was a royalist criollo officer, Augustin de Iturbide, known for his persecution of the rebel forces who helped bring the war to an end. Iturbide was a symbol of conservative Spanish values. He was committed to defend property rights and social privilege for the rich and high born, until he became discontented and disappointed by his lack of wealth and lack of promotions in spite of his military triumphs for the crown.
He hoped to create an opportunity for Mexican-born Spanish (like himself) to take over control of Mexico. He presented the Plan of Iguala, or three “guarantees” for Mexican independence. That led to his appointment as the leader of the Army of the Three Guarantees.
• Mexico was to be an independent monarchy governed by a conservative European prince.
• Spaniards born in Mexico (criollos)—Iturbide’s status in life—would have the rights and privileges of the upper classes.
• The Roman Catholic Church would retain its privileges and retain its religious monopoly.
While Father Hidalgo, Father of Mexico’s Independence, lived long enough to regret the bloodbath and huge loss of Mexican life that followed his grito, he didn’t live to see freedom. He was tried for treason by the Spanish Mexican tribunal and was executed with three other revolutionary leaders in 1811.
Father Hidalgo’s bell was removed from the little church in Dolores and later was installed at the Mexico’s National Palace, where it is rung every September 15th by the President whose patriotic speech ends with el grito.
Viva Mexico, Viva!
Viva Mexico, Viva!
Viva Mexico, Viva!
