Saturday, September 13, 2008

fiestas

Now on our third weekend here in San Cristóbal and tonight we have plans to meet up with some local Americans I met on the colectivo to CIESAS. Today we went out to a nice breakfast and did some neighborhood picture-taking. Below are some streets near our house:
Wednesday morning we'll catch a bus to Campanario to join in the festivities for the inauguration of the new Catholic church there. It sounds like it is to be two days of baptisms, catechisms, and weddings. My plan is to do make some nice audio recording and to eat some good tamales.

But before we head to Campanario, there is celebrating to be done here. This Tuesday the 16th is Mexico's Independence Day. This is not the day Mexico gained independence from Spain, but rather the day in 1810 that Hidalgo–also known (really) as Miguel Gregorio Antonio Ignacio Hidalgo y Costilla Gallaga Mondarte Villaseñor–rang the bell in a chuch in Dolores calling everyone to fight for liberty. This was the Grito de la Independencia, which is reenacted every year, with the original bell, by the Mexican president in the zócalo of Mexico City.

So we are told that beginning the night of the 15th everyone will be out in the city wearing traditional Mexican garb and large sombreros and in the plaza we'll have live music, lots of foodstalls, and, given what goes on the rest of the time, probably a lot of noisy fireworks. We are already beginning to see flags everywhere, and there are lots of little carts like the one below selling red-white-and-green paraphenelia:



3 comments:

Laurel said...

are there car dealerships in mexico? if there are, where are they? and if not, where do people get cars from?

Jessica said...

There are indeed car dealerships in Mexico. They are in commercial centers and other places where car dealerships go...what makes you ask?

Laurel said...

well
i saw cars in your photos, and except for when you rented a car a few years ago, i mostly hear about trucks and buses. and i never really thought about where the cars would come from.
i couldn't really imagine a car lot in mexico like how there are car lots in beaverton. so i didn't know if people bought cars in mexico, or if they had to buy them in say texas (which i imagine is just like beaverton, except well, texan) and drive them down.