lifestyle, travel This is Cozumel
Independence celebrations.
Independence celebrations.
 

Cozumel will celebrate Mexican Independence tonight, with the island's mayor making an emotional grito at 11pm at City Hall.

Across the country, the Mexican president and other political leaders will also make their "shouts-out".

The cries are made in memory of the Grito de Dolores, a call for Mexicans to rise up against the Spanish, made by Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla in 1810.

Hidalgo was parish priest in the town of Dolores, from where the Grito - or Cry - takes its name. It is sometimes mistranslated as 'The Cry of Pain'.

Hidalgo's words led to a fullscale uprising and the Mexican War of Independence.

Later, in 1815, Hidalgo was caught and killed by the Spanish, but rebel groups continued to fight and in 1821 the Mexicans eventually won victory.

 
Mexican flag
Flag flies in Cozumel.

Independence Day is now a major holiday and the cry by the mayor tonight in Cozumel will be preceded by cultural festival with music and dancing, starting at 7pm in front of City Hall.

Tomorrow, September 16, military parades, bullfights, rodeos and horseback rider performances take place in Cozumel and other towns and cities across the whole Republic.

The anniversary of the end of the struggle for independence is also celebrated every year on February 24, Mexican Flag Day.