MEXICAN INDEPENDENCE DAY

In 1521 500 Spanish soldiers arrived at the coast of Mexico. Their better weapons
soon defeated the hordes of natives and by the 13th of August, the same year, the last
Aztec emperor was captured. This marks the start of the Spanish rule In Mexico, or
Nueva Espaa, New Spain, as it was called then. In Mexico there had been other
native nations, who were ruled by the Aztecs. They chose to aid the Spanish against
the Aztecs to defeat them. They thought they would be better off with the Spanish as
leaders. They were completely wrong. After the Spanish captured the Aztecs, three
centuries of oppressing by the Spanish rulers were in front of them. When the Spanish
came to Mexico, there were about 20 million natives there. The Spaniards brought
with them a lot of diseases that were unknown to the natives and after a century of
Spanish rule only one million of them remained alive. The Spanish stratified the
whole society and each ethnic group had different rights and duties. It was like the
Apartheid in South-Africa. The people from Spain were the best and they got high |
roles in the society. they were followed by the ones born in Mexico from Spanish
parents, the Criollos. The people with mixed blood from Spaniards and natives were
next in line, they were called Mestizos. After them the natives, the Indios, came and at
last, the ones w

ith least rights, the Negros, the black slaves from Africa. In 1776,

the United States claimed the independence from Britain and some years later the
revolution in France led to the end of th e monarchy. Influenced by that and by the
Voltaire, Rousseau, and Montesquieu, the revolt had to start soon. Discontent had
grown, especially among the Criollos, who had always been treated as second-class
subjects by the Spanish crown. They were the spark which ignited the ticking bomb
that Mexico was at that time. In 1808, Napoleon invaded Spain and imposed his
brother, Jos Bonaparte as king of Spain. That was the opportunity the Criollos had
waited for, to grasp control of their independence. They decided to start the revolt on
the 2nd of October 1810, but their plans were discovered in early September. They had
two choices then: either to abandon their plans, or to start the revolt immediately.
Fortunately for Mexico, they chose the second alternative. In the early hours of the
16th of December 1810, Father Hidalgo, accompanied by his fellow conspirators, rang
the bell of his little church and called everyone to fight for their liberty. This was the
beginning of the independence war of Mexico, which lasted for ten years and Hidalgo
s words are still important today.

This moment, when Hidalgo spoke to the Mexicans, is the moment that every 16th of
December is remade in every plaza in Mexico and commemorated by Mexicans all
over the world. Every single street is decorated in the whole country with Mexican
flags and flags are waving from nearly all of the houses. Lights with green, red and
white colors are set up in every city, the most spectacular ones in the main plaza of
Mexico City. People of ages come there to celebrate one of the most important
moments in the history of Mexico.
As for the food we have many different varieties of finger food, called antojitos in
Mexico, which are eaten the whole day. They also eat a lot of dishes with the Mexican
colors, such as Chiles En Nogada, which is poblano chilies stuffed with meat and
dried fruits. Pozole is another common soup made of hominy, corn soaked and cooked
in an alkaline solution, and pork. We must not forget Mexicos national dish either:
Mole poblano. Mole means a thick sauce and poblano means from the city of Puebla.
Mole poblano is made from a variety of chilies which are shaken and peeled,
then toasted, chopped peanuts, toasted, finely chopped sesame seeds and raisins,
and some different spices. Since each ingredient must be shaken separately, it
is very time consuming. Then you add chocolate and chicken stock. After a long
period of cooking the sauce is almost black. The sauce is
served over chicken, turkey or pork. Another mole is guacamole, made from mashed
avocadoes and onions.
Mescal, a strong drink made from different agave plants is drunk over the whole
country, whereas the most popular variety is the Tequila, made from the blue agave
plant.