¡Viva México!

September 15th is Mexican Independence Day, so of course we had to celebrate in style!

For me, the morning started out pretty much the same as any other Saturday morning with my host family.  I slept in a little, then ate a late-ish breakfast with my family.  My grandmother and uncle were over as well, so there were 8 of us eating breakfast!  The kids all ate hot cakes, while the adults went with the chicharrones tacos (aka tacos with fried pig skins).  I decided to be a kid again, and stick with the pancakes!  As an added bonus, my family has both peanut butter and Nutella for me now, so I got pancakes with peanut butter for Independence Day! 

Later I watched part of a movie, then rode with the family to Walmart for some last minute shopping.  I then got to try pozole for the first time.  DELICIOUS!  Pozole is basically a corn soup, that you then load up with chicken, onion, lime, and avocado.  While we were eating an epic thunderstorm decided to roll through, so I played some games with my family.  Finally, at about 8, we headed to the Zocalo!

The Zocalo was super crowded, with lots of vendors selling everything from posters to tacos to shoes to handmade purses.  I was definitely glad to be there with my family, although I couldn't believe how many people were there with their young children!  Maury, Humberto, and Estefania were always holding someone's hand so they wouldn't get lost, but I was also glad to be connected to one of the children (especially when they were also connected to one of the adults) so there was less chance of me getting separated in the giant crowd.  We waited out another 45 minute rainstorm with everyone else who didn't want to get dumped on.  The rain made a lot of the vendors close up and drove a lot of people away, which was a little sad. 

the stage and balcony in the Zocalo

Eventually I met up with a few of the other volunteers, so we wandered around the Zocalo by ourselves.  Several phenomenal mariachi bands played, and then at 11 it was time for the grito!  At 11 the governor of Morelos appeared on the balcony overlooking the Zocalo to lead us all in the cry.  The governor led the cry, and then we all responded with ¡Viva! as appropriate. (The Huffington Post describes the grito pretty accurately here.)  At the end of that, we all got showered with spray foam!  Think silly string cans that spray out foam pellets.  I wasn't really expecting that, and we got a little messy!

right after being sprayed with foam

And then the fireworks started!  As the fireworks were going off, I was struck with one of those "how did I get so lucky and so blessed to be standing here right now in Mexico with all these awesome people" feelings that have been so prevalent lately.  Although I wished I could have been singing along with the other Mexicans during the national anthem, it was a beautiful moment!