The Bicentennial

As you may imagine, the Bicentennial is the hot topic over here right now. It’s on the radio, on TV, on the streets… You can feel it everywhere. I would love to tell you that it’s all good vibes for the celebrations, but you can probably imagine that, in a year of violence and resentment towards the government, it’s not like that.

Hakuna matata. I decided to do a ‘tour’ of the celebrations this week, and I thought a lot about you. That’s why I’m posting these photos – so that you can feel that you were gossiping around with me in the celebrations.

You may remember the typical stands that get put around in every corner during September. Well, this year, they’ve put a lot of effort into the merchandise – apart from the traditional goods, now they sell thousands of different pairs of tri-color earrings… with lights, hahaha. The stands in the center of the city are out of this world. Everything now has LEDs in it, and they were selling so many knick-knacks that I’m glad I didn’t take any kids with me.

Look at this year’s stands:

HOHOHOHOHO. =p

The decorations of places haven’t changed much. As always, there are flags and streamers hanging from buildings. The big companies and government buildings put effort into things and used ornaments designed after the national flag. They look quite pretty, I think. Check them out on these photos:

Well, you know that, over here, even the magazine stand gets decorated, hah. Let the flag sit next to the porn.

In almost all institutions they are doing something related to the Bicentennial. In the National University, extreme leftists are sick of it (and so are extreme right-wingers), but even my Faculty, which never gets involved in these things, has organized student activities related with this theme. The Geography college launched hot air balloons yesterday. I couldn’t see that because I had a class to attend, but here are a few pictures from that event:

The federal and city governments are working on a huge campaign asking people to not show up for the main celebration, haha. There won’t be enough space for everyone. So they are setting up ‘extensions’ of the show on different spots of the city. Each delegation within the city got extra budget to organize local events. In my area, there are many ads for the local celebration. They all say ‘so that you don’t have to go so faraway for the celebration’, haha. Here is a schedule of the events: http://www.sopitas.com/site/76188-horarios-y-bandas-para-los-conciertos-del-bicentenario/

(you get extra points if you can guess which stage will be for preppy kids, which one for rockers, and which one for hippies)

I have only gone seen things at the main area in the center of the city. I went on Monday the 13th to look at the decorations, and truth is I was impressed. It looked like it was the 15th already. It was practically full of people, they already had shows (like mariach music, folkloric dance, and even an opera performance); they had food and souvenir stands… I heard one of the young vendors, whose merchandise were tri-color mohawks, yelling at his friend, “Damn! Now ‘the gang’ is really working hard!”

All the streets surrounding the main area were closed. They have even closed the underground station for that area today. However, that day, streets were full of the typical stands: food (sopes, quesadillas, corn), toys for kids, hats… Lots of people buying things. There were many people selling cotton candy. The wind would pull thin ropes of cotton candy from the machine and take them away. Kids ran after them and tried to catch them. Here are some photos to prove it:

Here is a photo of the decorations:

Walking towards a purple building…

Getting close to the main area!

o.O Oh, man! The cathedral is purple! WTF!?

In the main area!

But it is also decorated for daylight. We arrived at around 7PM and took these photos:

The most fun part was seeing people. All families brought their small kids, who were obviously very pleased with all the food and partying. There were lots of elderly people too, who probably waited for this year for a very long time.

As you may well remember, kids wear traditional costumes to school on these days.

You couldn’t see the performers with clarity. You could only see them through the screens. But you could indeed listen to their music in the entire area. It all smelled like cooked corn =)

As I told you, everything on the media is about the Bicentennial these days. Yesterday I spent some time with my grandma making chicken tinga, so I listened to the radio with her. Two hours full of descriptions of the events at the center, the menu of the dinner for the ambassadors of other countries who are coming celebrate as well, security operations, etc…

Speaking of security operations, I felt bad for the policemen I saw on Monday. They were honestly working hard like never before, but disorder in the celebrations was huge. I don’t know what they’ll do tonight.

Here are some screenshots taken on local media webpages:

“Everything is ready for the party”, said Alonso Lujambio, the Secretary of Education. All the headlines listed underneath the main one are related to the celebrations. “President invited to the Congress building”; “Madero avenue is reopened for the celebrations”; “The rain “soaks” the pre-celebrations”; “Metrobus works suspended for the celebrations”; “Car circulation program suspended for three days”; “Presidency requests that celebrations are watched online”; “The underground will extend work hours until 3 AM on Thursday”.

“A century of Mexican beauty: The names and faces of the women who have conquered the world.”

And here is a link to what I consider the most reasonable column on the Bicentennial, by my favorite journalist:  http://columnas.ejecentral.com.mx/estrictamentepersonal/2010/09/15/2010-mas-alto-mas-lejos/