El Grito de Independencia celebrated at El Camino

On September 16, 1810, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla made a decision that revolutionized Mexican history. Hidalgo—a Catholic priest in the village of Dolores, Guanajuato—ordered the arrest of Dolores’s native Spaniards, or gachupines.

Hidalgo then rang the church bell as he customarily did to call the indigenous residents to Mass. The message that Hidalgo gave called them to retaliate against the gachupines, who had oppressed Mexicans (over 95 percent being Native Americans) for ten generations.

Carla Soto performs El Grito Ceremony

This cry is called “El Grito de Dolores, or de Independencia,” or The Cry for Mexican Independence from Spain.

El Grito ceremonies are celebrated throughout México and around the world where citizens of Mexican ancestry reside, including in the United States. In the ceremony, the names of the liberators, such as Hidalgo, are remembered, with cries of independence and the playing of the Mexican National Anthem. The ceremony ends with “¡Viva México!”

In downtown Detroit, the Mexican Consulate for Michigan and Ohio held special recognition on Sept. 15, 2009 at the Chamber of Commerce.

In Toledo, El Camino Real Restaurants hosted its first El Grito celebration at El Camino Real (West), with Carla Soto administering the ceremony.  According to Jesús Angel, one of the owners of the restaurants, “El Camino Real will host El Grito every Sept. 16, with gifts and activities for our loyal customers.” Entertainment included folkloric dance by El Corazón de México.

In 2010, México will celebrate its 200 years of Independence from Spain (and 100 years since the Mexican Revolution of 1910) and special celebrations are planned throughout el mundo.

Editor’s Note: Mexican Independence Day is Sept. 16, and not el cinco de mayo (May 5).