El Grito

Traditionally shouted at midnight on the 15th of September in its most simple form it is “Viva la independencia” or “Viva Mexico”. It is preceded by the naming of some of the main heroes of the revolution and followed by the ringing of bells.   Locally we refer to it simply as El Grito but it is also called El Grito de Dolores because that is where it was first uttered by Miguel Hidalgo  on the 15th of September 1810.  It is also called El Grito del la Independencia.  The holiday celebrated on the 16th of September is sometimes referred to as El Grito de Dolores rather than el Dia de la Independencia.

The following Youtube video has El Grito given by Filipe Calderon at the 2009 celebration in Mexico City at 2 minutes into the video followed by the national anthem at 3:25.

We celebrate independence day on the day of the first utterance of El Grito. The first battle followed 4 days later at Guanajuato but it would be over 10 years of bitter struggle before independence was declared on 27 September 1821.

What was actually said, when and even by whom is disputed.  This Spanish interview discusses the various controversies. Some say Hidalgo actually called for the defence of the Spanish King in hopes the Spanish would expel the French. Other versions say his proclamation did not include a single “Viva” but was a promise to pay one peso for horsemen and half a peso for foot soldiers who would join with him. The later distortions of “El Grito” were intended to serve various movements and interests.

Wikipedia explains in greater detail:

The Grito de Dolores (“Cry of Dolores”) was the battle cry of the Mexican War of Independence also known as El Grito de la Independencia (“Cry of Independence”), uttered on September 16, 1810 by Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, a Roman Catholic priest from the small town of Dolores, near Guanajuato.

Hidalgo and several criollos were involved in a planned revolt against the Spanish colonial government, and the plotters were betrayed. Fearing his arrest,^[1] Hidalgo commanded his brother Mauricio, as well as Ignacio Allende and Mariano Abasolo to go with a number of other armed men to make the sheriff release the pro-independence inmates there on the night of 15 September. They managed to set eighty free. Just before midnight on September 15, 1810, Hidalgo ordered the church bells to be rung and gathered his congregation. Flanked by Allende and Juan Aldama, he addressed the people in front of his church, encouraging them to revolt:

My children: a new dispensation comes to us today. Will you receive it? Will you free yourselves? Will you recover the lands stolen by three hundred years ago from your forefathers by the hated Spaniards? We must act at once… Will you defend your religion and your rights as true patriots? Long live our Lady of Guadalupe! Death to bad government! Death to the gachupines!

Hidalgo’s Grito did not condemn the notion of monarchy or criticize the current social order in detail, but his opposition to the events in Spain and the current viceregal government was clearly expressed in his reference to bad government. The Grito also emphasized loyalty to the Catholic religion, a sentiment with which both Creoles and Peninsulares (native Spaniards) could sympathize; however, the strong anti-Spanish cry of “Death to the Gachupines” (Gachupines was a nickname given to Peninsulares) probably had caused horror among Mexico’s elite.^[1]

The Battle of Guanajuato, the first major engagement of the insurgency, occurred 4 days later. Mexico’s independence would not be effectively declared from Spain in the Declaration of Independence of the Mexican Empire until September 27, 1821, after a decade of war.