¡Viva México!

Tonight, in plazas across this country, someone will step onto a balcony, ring a bell, and cry out “¡Viva México!” to a crowd that answers back as one voice. It’s called El Grito — the shout — and it has echoed every September 15th and 16th since 1810, when a priest named Miguel Hidalgo rang the bell of his small church in the town of Dolores and called his parishioners to rise against Spanish rule.

September 16th is Mexico’s Independence Day, and if you’re building a life here, today is not a day to observe from a distance. It’s a day to understand — because woven into this story is a thread that belongs to us, too.

The Short History

Mexico’s War of Independence lasted eleven years, from Hidalgo’s Grito de Dolores in 1810 to final independence from Spain in 1821. It was not one clean uprising but a long, costly struggle carried by different leaders after Hidalgo was captured and executed — most notably a mixed-race priest named José María Morelos, and after his death, a leader who would go on to shape the nation in ways rarely taught in either country’s classrooms: Vicente Guerrero.

The Name You May Not Have Learned: Vicente Guerrero

Vicente Guerrero was born in 1782 in the small town of Tixtla to an Afro-Mexican father and an Indigenous mother. He worked as a mule driver before joining the insurgency in 1810, and over the next decade he became one of the war’s most relentless commanders — continuing the fight for independence long after other leaders had been captured or killed, using guerrilla tactics that many credit with keeping the movement alive.

When the war was finally won, Guerrero didn’t stop there. In 1829, he became Mexico’s second president — the first of African and Indigenous descent to hold the office. And in September of that year, on the anniversary of the independence he had fought so hard for, he issued a decree formally abolishing slavery across Mexico. This was more than three decades before the Emancipation Proclamation in the United States.

His decree carved out one regional exception, and it cost him dearly — the decision helped provoke the political backlash that led to his overthrow and, in 1831, his execution. But the fact remains: a man of African descent stood at the helm of this nation and used that position to end slavery here, deliberately choosing the anniversary of independence as the moment to do it.

Why This Belongs in Our Story

We talk often, in this community, about ancestral threads — about the ways Black history runs through Mexico far deeper than most of us were ever taught. Vicente Guerrero is one of the clearest expressions of that thread. His story is not a footnote to Mexican independence; it is part of its foundation. And his life is a reminder that this country’s freedom and Black freedom have been intertwined here since before either nation as we know it fully existed.

When you hear “¡Viva México!” shouted tonight, you are not an outsider borrowing someone else’s celebration. You are standing inside a history that includes people who look like you, who helped build the very independence being celebrated.

How to Mark the Day

• Join a Grito ceremony. Most towns and cities hold a public reenactment on the night of September 15th, in the town or city plaza — crowds, fireworks, and the shout itself.
• Fly or wear the colors. Green, white, and red show up everywhere today — on flags, ribbons, food, and clothing.
• Eat seasonally. Look for chiles en nogada, a dish whose green, white, and red ingredients were designed to mirror the flag — a September specialty you won’t find most other times of year.
• Say his name. If the opportunity comes up today, tell someone about Vicente Guerrero. His story deserves to travel further than it has.

A Final Word

Independence Day in Mexico isn’t just a date on the calendar for those of us building a life here — it’s an invitation to understand exactly whose shoulders this freedom stands on. Tonight, when the bell rings and the plaza answers back, let it land differently. You already know this story. You just didn’t always know his name.

¡Viva México! ¡Viva Guerrero!