¡Viva México! ¡Viva La Independencia!

This weekend is the celebration of Mexico's independence, so every pueblo, ciudad and estado in México is celebrating in one big way or another. If you'd like a little more history on Mexico's Día de la Independencia, check out this abridged video (just watch up to 5 minutes):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFNHayrnav8

This year seems to be a little more controversial than others due to the mounting tensions between the government, the about-to-be president, Enrique Peña Nieto, and many Mexicans throughout the country. Many Mexicans, and when I say many I mean the majority of people I've talked to in Cuernavaca, believe that these elections were corrupt, and that PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional) bought peoples' votes in order to win. The PRI ruled Mexico for 71 years, being an extremely fraudulent and corrupt government. It was defeated for the first time in 2000. It seems that a lot of people are fearful that the country will return to the days of corruption and authoritarianism, so I have a feeling that within the next few months there will be some pretty interesting protests, conversations, and developments on this election.

Regardless of the underlying political atmosphere throughout the country, people everywhere celebrated this important historical day with much fervor. I would even venture to say that Mexicans celebrate their Independence Day harder than the United States' 4th of July celebrations :).. Here are some pictures of the festivities:

These traditional costumed dancers are called Chinelos. They represent the fusing of indigenous and Catholic traditions, but are also mocking European mannerisms. They danced through the Zócalo while people stood by and watched, while others joined in!

This was an awesome live band that played in the Zócalo for the celebrations.

We ate some festive jello 

 It's very traditional to wear Mexico's colors (red, green, and white) on Independence Day. We also saw a lot of people wearing bigotes (mustaches), so of course we had to have our own. At 11:00, we went to the grito in the Zócalo

Besides celebrating 202 years of Mexican Independence, this week involved a lot of other  fun activities:

 I worked up in Santo Domingo Ocotitlán with La Fundación. We weeded out beds in order to transplant lettuce, cucumbers, and celery, and we're hoping that neither the squirrels nor hail affect their growth!

We ate some tamales muyyy sabrosos with the Casa Hoy staff during our convivio, and then had to finish off the night with some old school games :)

Chloe and I had the chance to take a cheese-making class at El Campo Experimental, which is located in the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos. The queso fresco was delicious, and made from cows that they had recently milked!

 We also helped them fertilize their grafted avocado trees. Isn't it a perdy place?

For this next week, three new volunteers will be joining us, and I'll be delving deeper into my projects with La Fundación.. Muy emocionante!!

¡Viva México!