September 16 may not be an important day to the United States, but across the border, it signifies one of the most important days in history. It is the anniversary of Mexico’s declaration of independence from Spain.

The day commemorates when Catholic priest Miguel Hidalgo in 1810 made the cry for independence hours after midnight by giving a riveting speech in the town of Dolores and ringing the town’s church bells.

The moment was the start of the 11-year Mexican War of Independence that resulted in Mexico gaining freedom from Spain after being under colonial rule for over 300 years.

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While those unfamiliar with the holiday may see comparisons to the US Declaration of Independence, they do share the ideas of breaking away from European rule.

Speaking to USA Today, Alexandro Gradilla, associate professor of Chicana and Chicano Studies at California State University, Fullerton said, “Technically, they gained their freedom. But the way that freedom was gained was not true freedom.”

To Gradilla and other historians, being under Spanish rule was vastly different from Americans under British rule.

According to the New World Encyclopedia, that is what made the Grito de Dolores such an iconic moment in the new country. It gave people hope that they would be free.

Revelers wave Mexican flags as fireworks explode after President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador gave the annual independence shout from the balcony of the National Palace to kick off Independence Day celebrations, in Mexico City on September 15, 2019.

Regardless of the number of wars it took on Mexico, it was still a major victory in becoming its own nation, one that is greatly celebrated today. 

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Every year, the president of Mexico stands on the balcony of the National Palace in Mexico City and delivers a speech similar to Hidalgo’s and honors those who fought for the country’s independence.

Cinco de Mayo is not Mexican Independence Day

However, this holiday is still often confused with Cinco de Mayo, which is the celebration of Mexico defeating another global superpower, France, in the Battle of Puebla in 1862.

In a report, USA Today said that Robert Castro, director of Chicanx and Latinx studies at the University of California, San Diego, September 16 gets overshadowed in the United States because of Cinco de Mayo. 

Gradilla and Castro both said that many Mexican-Americans were inspired by the May holiday during the Chicano Civil Rights Movement in the middle of the 20th century.

“Many Chicano activists used that holiday as a way to celebrate their roots and show their appreciation and pride of Mexican culture. Because the Battle of Puebla was led by Mexico’s first and only Indigenous president, Benito Jaurez, they felt that event best symbolized their pride and identities as Chicanos, as Mexican Americans,” Castro said. 

Many Central American countries, such as Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica celebrate their independence days around the same time as Mexico. However, Chile observed it on September 18.