Most foreigners at lakeside probably know that Mexico celebrates Independence Day on September 16, the date in 1810 when the national struggle against Spanish rule began. Some may not be aware that the Guerra de Independencia dragged on until 1821, when freedom from the Gachupines was finally achieved.

Padre Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, village priest in Dolores, Guanajuato, issued the call-to-arms in the early hours of September 16. However, he did not survive to see the mission accomplished. The so-called Father of the Nation was captured by royalist forces, defrocked, and executed in July 1811.

En route to Guadalajara in the early months of the revolt, Hidalgo and his warriors camped out overnight in Atequiza, not far from the shores of Lake Chapala, on November 24, 1810.

Many historical accounts make no mention of the local resistance to the royalists that was based on the Isla de Mezcala. Indigenous insurgents held out from 1812 to 1816, fighting for territorial control without surrender until a truce was forged with the Spanish command.

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