Friday, June 16, Jalisco will mark the bicentennial of its “Birth as a Free and Sovereign State.”
The day will not be an official public holiday, but all municipal and state government employees will have the day off. Classes at all levels in public and private schools will also be suspended for the day. Some students have been chosen to take part in civic ceremonies to be held on June 16.
The private sector has been encouraged to participate in the celebrations by giving their employees the day off, although this is not obligatory.
The celebrations honor the day in June when members of the Board of the Provincial Council of Guadalajara (the institution that was in charge of the autonomous administration of the province of Guadalajara) met in an extraordinary session to declare the creation of the “Free State of Xalisco”*—the first to be established in Mexico.
Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro has sent a proposal to the state legislature to mandate June 16 as the “official” date of Jalisco’s birth and be declared a public holiday.
Other proposals to mark the bicentennial include changing the name of Parque de la Solidaridad in Tonala to Parque Luis Quintanar, who was the first de facto governor of Jalisco, and placing a statue of Prisciliano Sánchez, the founder of Jalisco and its first constitutional governor in the Rotunda of Illustrious Jaliscienses.
The governor said celebrating the bicentennial is a reminder of the importance of preserving and valuing the state’s history and traditions for future generations.