Rather than squandering funds on self-aggrandizement and royal decor, the governments of Juárez and his successor, Sebastiin Lerdo de Tejada, stressed republican principles and material progress during national holidays. For example, Mexico celebrated Independence Day in 1869 by inaugurating the recently completed Mexico-Puebla railroad line. High government officials from Mexico City embarked on a "steampowered procession" to the City of Angels, drawing attention to the nation's newest vehicle of modernization. In keeping with liberal republican interpretations of ceremonial propriety, the most elaborate public events from 1867 to 1876 were neither religious processions nor military parades, but state funerals. City fathers and federal government officials allocated more money for the republican funerals of former president Ignacio Comonfort, statesman Manuel Doblado, and generals José María Arteaga and Carlos Salazar than it did for Cinco de Mayo and Independence Day. The state funeral of President Benito Juárez surpassed all previous ceremonial events held in Mexico City in terms of attendance. On July 23, 1872, 100,000 mourners filed past his body as it laid in state in the National Palace, and an incalculable number participated in his magnificent funeral procession.

The liberal caudillo (strongman) and military dictator Porfirio Díaz ( 1876-80 ; 1884-1911) gave new meaning and expression to the art of public performance. Citizens of his era of economic progress and political stability witnessed the perfection of the political uses of the civic procession. For the first time in national history, funds were consistently available for the immodest celebration of Independence Day and Cinco de Mayo. Holidays were occasions to profile the professional military, the rural constabulary (Rurales), and the urban police force (Gendarmería) in the most elaborate of patriotic parades to date. Supporters of Díaz both in and out of government circles organized giant civic marches both to show their support for Díaz's reelection bids and to inaugurate each of his new presidential terms. The president also marched at the head of dozens of state funeral processions that honored the nation's illustrious dead, and he participated in the major religious processions of the era. The Porfirian pageant culminated with the Centennial of Mexican Independence of 1910, an elegant capstone for those of the Porfirian persuasion and a primera piedra for those with more revolutionary convictions.