Thursday

Quick background note: on September 16th, 1810, shortly before dawn, the original Mexican revolution was called in the little town of Dolores. Miguel Hidalgo stood in the bell tower of his parish church, rang the future symbol of Mexican liberty, and shouted for revolution in an act that has become known as the Grito de Dolores. Since then, if has become custom to reenact the Grito on Independence Day. Since Porfirio Diaz* (who celebrated his birthday the day before Independence Day), this reenactment has taken place at midnight, to span both the fifteenth and the sixteenth. The national celebration is usually held in the national plaza, the Zócalo, in México City. Today president Vicente Fox, harried by a protest movement that has basically surrounded the old liberty bell at it's modern location in that Zócalo, announced that he will be returning the Grito celebration to Dolores (now Dolores Hidalgo, about an hour away from Guanajuato).* Wow. For two weeks, news sources have reported no special plans to beef up security for the coming holiday, and now we know why. Look for AMLO's shadow government to start on Saturday. Tonight is Miss Venezuela, by the way. While the pageant does not seem to be telecast anywhere in México, and will not be shown for months in the US, Sunshine is managing to keep track of it on her laptop through kind, piecemeal donations of the ongoing event to YouTube. Go pirates! Lastly, we've been seeing a lot of rain this week, and it might be due to Tropical Storm Lane,* barreling for the Pacific Coast resort at Manzanillo (and on to ravage the usual suspects on the Baja peninsula). Lane is still getting stronger, and may become a Hurricane tonight or tomorrow--expect flood news here soon. [Cavin]