General News

On Tuesday, October 1, Claudia Sheinbaum will be sworn in as Mexico’s first female president, beginning a single six-year term that will run until 2030.

Undocumented migration to the United States has fallen significantly since President Joe Biden’s executive order imposing stricter asylum rules took effect in June.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador assumed office in 2018 with a promise to usher in a new era of progressive change and combat the entrenched issues of corruption and inequality that have long plagued Mexico.

So, how did he fare?

Speaking at a town hall event in Flint, Michigan, former U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to impose a 200-percent tariff on automobiles imported from Chinese manufacturers in Mexico to make them “unsellable” in the United States.

U.S. First Lady Dr. Jill Biden will lead a presidential delegation from the United States at the inauguration of Claudia Sheinbaum as the next president of Mexico on Tuesday, October 1.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador signed his controversial Judicial Reform Bill into law on September 15, shortly after more than half of Mexico’s state legislatures approved the constitutional changes.

Due to the current wave of cartel infighting, it may be prudent to avoid traveling to or through the state of Sinaloa for the time being.

Why is Guadalajara’s Independence monument so overlooked?

In contrast to the Angel de la Independencia on the Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico City, Guadalajara’s monument to Mexican Independence mostly goes unnoticed amid the hustle and bustle of traffic-choked Calzada Independencia.

Both monuments were commissioned by the dictator Porfirio Díaz and completed in 1910 to mark the 100th anniversary of Father Miguel Hidalgo’s 1810 call to arms  against Spanish colonial rule. These centennial celebrations highlighted national unity, stability and modernization—key themes of Díaz’s regime—though they also obscured the growing social discontent and inequality that would soon lead to the Mexican Revolution and his downfall.

Similar to its counterpart in Mexico City, Guadalajara’s monument to Independence features an angel representing Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, symbolizing triumph and freedom. At the base of its (much smaller) column is a statue of Hidalgo accompanied by three of his followers, with a representation of the Madre Patria (Motherland) to his left.

Unlike Mexico City, where the Angel Monument serves as a focal point for both triumphal celebrations (sporting, political, etc.) and protests, residents of Guadalajara rarely gather around their monument to independence. Instead, they prefer to head to the Minerva Glorieta or the large Plaza de la Liberación in the city center, constructed in 1952 after two entire blocks of housing were demolished. (This plaza boasts a far more impressive statue of Hidalgo.)

The Calzada Independencia was also commissioned in 1910 by Díaz to emulate Paris’s Champs-Élysées and the capital’s Paseo de la Reforma. Featuring wide lanes and sidewalks, it covered the San Juan de Dios River, transformed a year earlier from a dirty natural waterway into an underground sewer line. 

As Guadalajara grew and the Calzada became one of the city’s busiest and most polluted thoroughfares, the monument to independence gradually lost its prominence as a focal point and visitor attraction. While it remains imposing, it is unfortunately not easily accessible to pedestrians, situated in the center of the junction of Calzada Independencia and Avenida de La Paz.

Could Mexico’s War of Independence have ended soon after it began?

After issuing his famous rallying cry against the Spanish crown on September 16, 1810, Miguel Hidalgo and his rebel forces—composed largely of 80,000 indigenous people and mestizos—marched toward Mexico City. Outside the capital, they encountered a much smaller royalist army of between 2,500 and 3,000 troops.

At the Battle of Monte de las Cruces, Hidalgo’s forces overwhelmed the royalists, due mostly to superior numbers rather than military prowess. But despite being within striking distance of Mexico City, Hidalgo chose to retreat and regroup—a decision many historians believe may have delayed Mexican independence by more than a decade.

Historians are divided on the reasons for Hidalgo’s hesitancy after this decisive victory. Some argue that he feared resistance from well-armed residents of the capital and the imminent arrival of royalist reinforcements. His army, though large, was primarily made up of undisciplined and poorly trained civilians, many of whom lacked proper weapons. There were concerns about widespread looting, destruction and civilian casualties if he attempted to capture the capital. Additionally, Hidalgo’s forces were running low on food, ammunition and other essential supplies, making regrouping seem like a more prudent choice.

Had Hidalgo chosen to advance, the course of Mexican history might have been very different. In the end, Hidalgo’s rebellion was defeated in January of the following year, at the Battle of Calderon Bridge outside Guadalajara, and it was left to other revolutionaries to take up the cause. Independence from Spain was finally achieved in 1821, nearly 11 years after the victory at the Battle of Monte de las Cruces.

Why can’t I visit Hidalgo’s tombin his hometown?

Some visitors to Mexico might wonder why the country doesn’t honor its founding father, Miguel Hidalgo, by opening his gravesite to the public, as is done with George Washington’s tomb at Mount Vernon in Virginia. While Hidalgo’s hometown of Dolores Hidalgo is rich with historical significance related to him, his final resting place is actually not there, but at the Ángel de la Independencia monument on Mexico City’s Paseo de la Reforma.

After Hidalgo was executed by firing squad in 1811, he was buried in the cemetery of San Sebastián Church in Guanajuato, 37 miles from Dolores Hidalgo. Two years after Mexico’s independence was achieved, in 1823, his remains were exhumed and interred in the Mexico City Cathedral. In 1925, under the orders of anti-clerical President Plutarco Elías Calles, they were moved to the Ángel de la Independencia, where they today reside. At the same time, the remains of other key independence heroes were also transferred to the monument, including Ignacio Allende, Nicolás Bravo, Vicente Guerrero, José María Morelos y Pavón, Leona Vicario, and Guadalupe Victoria.

When was Mexico’s first Independence Day celebration?

Much like the United States, which marked its first Independence Day on July 4, 1777 with festivities in Philadelphia characterized by bonfires, bells and fireworks, Mexico also began celebrating its break with Spain soon after the fight for freedom began.

According to Jaime Arenal de Fenochio in his work “Cronología de la Independencia,” the first unofficial commemoration of the “Grito de Dolores” took place on September 16, 1812, in Chapitel, now part of the present-day state of Hidalgo. Arenal describes the event as having a “festive atmosphere,” with the regiment discharging their weapons, attending mass, and concluding the celebration with music.

On September 14, 1813, rebel leader José María Morelos included the commemoration in his Sentimientos de la Nación, the document outlining his political philosophy for an independent Mexico. He wrote, “Let the 16th day of September be solemnized every year, as the anniversary day on which the voice of Independence was raised and our holy freedom began.”

Following a protracted and violent insurgency, Mexico finally achieved independence from Spanish rule in September 1821. September 16 was officially declared a national holiday in 1825.

In 1847, why didn’t Mexico City celebrate Independence Day?

Mexican Independence Day was not celebrated in Mexico City in 1847 because the city was under occupation by U.S. forces during the Mexican-American War. On September 14, 1847, just two days before Mexico’s Independence Day, U.S. troops, led by General Winfield Scott, captured Mexico City after a series of battles, including the famous Battle of Chapultepec.  

With the capital occupied, there was no freedom to celebrate Mexican independence. The war, which had begun in 1846 over territorial disputes following the U.S. annexation of Texas, was a major conflict that ended in 1848 with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, in which Mexico lost about half of its territory to the United States, including what are now California, Arizona, New Mexico and other southwestern states.

The occupation and the defeat dealt a significant blow to Mexican morale, making the 1847 Independence Day impossible to observe in the capital.