Mexican Independence Day: What's Celebrating Gonna Cost You?

As mentioned in previous postings, The Hubs and I live in one of the largest Mexican communities in Chicago. It's a love-hate relationship we got, me and "the Mexicans". While on one hand I'm ecstatic to be surrounded by memories and images of my childhood, I'm not impressed by the American version of Mexican. This weekend was the celebration of el Dia de Independencia or Mexican Independence Day.  There was a flood of red, white and green decoration, t-shirts and even pastries all over the main strip. People waving huge flags as they walked, or drove, down the streets. Rancheras and cumbias bumped out of windows and into the hips of pedestrians. People vocalized their national pride, making it heard loud and clear throughout the day. But, unfortunately, so did sirens, gun shots, obnoxiously disrespectful cat calls, and gang members representing "what they be about". In a time for celebrating independence from oppression and the uplifting of our people, are we actually damaging ourselves even more?

"You wanna have breakfast and head out to the parade?" The Hubs questioned on his way back in from walking the dog. I listened to the parade from my window catching waves of music and children's voices. I opted out not to go. We sat and conversed about what the "celebration" has turned into over the years. Sure, there are plenty of immigrants and x generation mexicans who genuinely feel the orgullo and want to share it with others. BUT, there are a lot more people who take it as an opportunity to be hateful towards one another, use "pride" as a synonym for racist and plenty of people who give themselves the "it's ok to be disrespectful" pass.


Let's take a trip back to the origin of Mexican Independence Day...

Way back before Columbus and his friends the original conservatrons sailed to the other side of the world Mexico was the home to various indigenous people, black people (do your research folks) and scattered "others" who'd traveled and made the land their home base. They created significant and sophisticated civilizations which are linked to many "firsts" including: writing, calendars, irrigation and transportation systems etc. They had systems.



Then, after Cristóbal Colón (you don't think his name was actually Christopher Columbus do you?) traveled and "discovered" the western hemisphere the Spaniards decided that they too would set sail and see what was available to own. They discovered the land of these indigenous civilizations and decided, "uh... we want this!" The rest is history.

Millions of indigenous people were wiped out, the sophisticated systems were abandoned except for the ones that allowed the conquistadors to take back riches (gold, corn, turquoise, etc).

This went on for a loooong time before indigenous folk, slaves (Black and Indigenous) and the criollos (Mexican born Spaniards) decided enough was enough. The people were tired of being treated unfairly on their own land. They were being subjected to very oppressive behaviors, they were being forced to leave their cultural and spiritual beliefs for those of the Spanish, and their freedom was nonexistent. These circumstances were creating a social and physical demise amongst the people. Plans to revolt against the Spanish rule were underway.

The plan was initially to target the Spanish occupants in October of 1810, but due to some chismoso, the plans were sped up to the night of September 15, 1810 when Padre Miguel Hidalgo made the call to war in the town of Dolores, the call that is now known as El Grito de Dolores. 

This call marked the beginning of the road to independence for Mexico from Spain.

Now,

it seems to me that many people have lost the reason for celebration. Later in the evening, after the parade, festival and backyard BBQs subsided, young men scattered the streets as if it were a war zone. We took our final night walk with the dog when we watched a few police officers warn these boys to "go home, get off the streets". Half a block later we witnessed a small group of others tip each other off about the status of some others and run off. Chaos.

We didn't have to be outside to notice. While watching television I could hear what earlier in the day was sounds of music and laughter, now was shouting gang names and distant gun shots and peeling wheels. The streets were hot. Unfortunately, I've learned while living in this neighborhood, Mexican Independence Day is one of the most violent day in my community.

This isn't the part of Mexico I was taught to respect.


How ironic, that the very things we celebrate are now what we lack, leading us to our own modern demise. Mexican Independence was not gained so that we could run around in the streets killing each other, oppressing ourselves, being the statistics that allow government officials to overlook our humanity. It was to uplift ourselves, to demand respect and rights and righteousness. No parade filled with commercial advertisements, half naked women and stereotypes of who we are is going to lead us to celebrate the things we should really be celebrating: Our power to change the injustices we face because we are worthy of being better.