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Important Mexican Civic Processions

cuterichy — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 03:38:39 -0400

Important civic processions of a more solemn and stately nature took place during the innumerable state funerals of the Porfiriato. When a distinguished statesman, illustrious general, or renowned man of letters passed away, the federal government decreed periods of mourning, issued thousands of mortuary announcements to friends of the deceased, and posted broadsheets on street corners that invited citizens to attend the funeral obsequies. In preparation for the solemn procession through the streets, high officials established the processional route and order of march, asked businesses to close shop, modified streetcar schedules, and draped the city in mourning black. Every available public servant and soldier was asked to join President Díaz in escorting the elegant hearse to the cemetery. Popular attendance depended greatly on three variables: the organizational efforts of the federal government, the day of the week the funeral was held, and the reputation of the deceased hero. For the state funerals of General Jesus Gonzólez Ortega, former presidents Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada and Manuel González, statesman Manuel Romero Rubio, and General Mariano Escobedo attendance easily exceeded 100,000 citizens.

State funerals were special civic celebrations that evoked both the emotional power and aesthetic expression of Mexico during its belle époque. In 1895 the government exhumed the remains of the 13 Independence heroes from the Altar de los Reyes in the Nacional Cathedral and reburied them in another splendid ceremony. Patriotic and mutualist societies purchased a special urn to contain the venerated remains. Minister of the Interior Manuel Romero Rubio commissioned a special monument to be erected to the heroes. And Federal District employees decorated the city with black crepe, tricolor bunting, and national flags. The great procession took place on July 30, the anniversary of the execution of Miguel Hidalgo, the father of Mexican Independence. The urn containing the skulls and bones of Hidalgo, Morelos, Allende, and other heroes was placed on a long railroad platform car, elegantly decorated with black velvet and roses, and pulled through the streets by magnificent black steeds. President Díaz, government officials, and delegations of patriotic and working-class societies followed reverently. Lining the processional route, thousands of citizens, their hats in their hands, watched the sacred relics pass before them. Silence was interrupted every 15 minutes by the distant boom of cannon fired from the Ciudadela. The cortege returned to the cathedral and the urn was interred in a crypt beneath the Capilla de San José. In 1903, a similar procession was held in honor of insurgent leader Nicolás Bravo, whose remains were brought from Chilpancingo, Guerrero, and deposited with those of the other Independence heroes.

Religious Processions during Porfirio D?az Policy

cuterichy — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 03:38:20 -0400

The conciliation policy of Porfirio Díaz is demonstrated by government participation in religious processions from 1876-1911. As if to publicize the state's rapprochement with the church, Díaz and his cabinet members often marched at the head of important religious processions, including the funeral corteges for archbishops of Mexico Pelagio Antonio de Labastida ( 1891) and Próspero María Alarcón ( 1908). As padrinos at the episcopal consecration of Alarcón, Díaz and his father-in-law, Minister of the Interior Manuel Romero Rubio, both participated in the ecclesiastical procession through the streets. Díaz, a mason, and his ministers, such as the anticlerical Romero Rubio, took part in church ceremonies to demonstrate the new alliance between church and state and to reassure the Catholic world that rabid anticlericalism was a thing of the past.

Processions were held in conjunction with a number of church coronation ceremonies during the Porfiriato, especially with the crowning of the Virgin of Guadalupe in 1895. On August 11, 1859, Benito Juárez decreed December 12 an official religious holiday honoring the Virgin of Guadalupe. The first pontifical coronation in Mexico, however, did not take place until February 14, 1886, when the Virgen de la Esperanza (Virgin of Hope) was crowned in Jacona, Michoacón. Perhaps inspired by the exhortations of the papal encyclical Rerum Novarum ( 1891), Catholic leaders in Mexico reinvigorated the centuries-old campaign to coronate Mexico's premiere patrona, the Virgin of Guadalupe. It was the dictator's wife, doña Carmen Romero Rubio, who led the elite in raising $30,000 to purchase an elaborate silver and gold crown for the virgin. In the second week of October, 1895, numerous religious processions lent some sobriety to an atmosphere of merriment and rejoicing. Finally, on October 12, the anniversary of Columbus's discovery of America, the Virgin was crowned before an international audience that included 11 Archbishops, 28 Bishops, and prelates from the United States, Canada, Cuba, and Panama. The coronation ceremony revitalized subsequent celebrations of December 12, gave impetus to the crowning of the Virgin Juan de los Lagos ( 1904), and paved the way for improved relations between the Mexican government and the Vatican. After 30 years without an apostolic delegate in Mexico, Pope Leo XIII sent Archbishop Nicolas Averardi to Mexico City in 1896. In 1910, Pope Pius X proclaimed the Virgin to be the "Reina de los Mexicanos" and the "Celestial Patrona de América Latind".

The nineteenth-century civic procession reached its peak during the Centennial of Mexican Independence celebration in September 1910. On September 15 spectators lined the streets of the Centro Histórico to witness a history parade that surpassed all others. Instead of presenting individual allegorical floats to symbolize distinct eras in Mexican history, organizers devoted entire sections of a panoramic historical cavalcade to represent each period. Thus, the "Epoch of the Conquest" section, which dramatically retold the first encounter of Moteuczoma and Cortós, required a cast of 839 persons. More than 200 indigenous people from San Luis Potosí were brought in to play the part of Moteuczoma's court.

Military Parade in Mexico

cuterichy — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 03:38:16 -0400

In contrast to Díaz appearance on Juárez Day, Porfirio Díaz always wore the uniform of a Division General during military parades on Cinco de Mayo and Independence Day. The military parade gained primacy under Díaz with the reorganization of the federal army, the establishment of the Gendarmería, the expansion of the Rurales, and the inclusion of the military cadets of Chapultepec in national ceremonies. All four groups participated in parades and became sources of national pride on days commemorating the glorious victories of the Mexican military. Soldiers marched through the principal avenues of the city and ended either at the Plaza de la Constitución (also called the Plaza de Armas, or zócalo) or at the foot of Chapultepec Castle. On Cinco de Mayo bureaucrats and civilians marched in separate processions from the Alameda to the San Fernando Cemetery to lay wreaths upon the grave of Ignacio Zaragoza, the victorious general at Puebla.

During the Porfiriato, Independence Day parades grew more elaborate and popular than ever before. Beginning in 1883, large numbers of tourists came to Mexico City to participate in the Independence fetes. The completion of the Mexican Central Railroad brought provincial Mexicans and North Americans face to face to commemorate Mexican Independence. In 1883 over 30,000 visitors witnessed a grand cavalcade of Mexico's history. That year's parade featured 13 horse-drawn floats depicting historical scenes in chronological order, including Columbus's discovery of America, Mexican Independence, the Republic, and 10 others. The final and most popular float "Progress—Industry and Peace" presented the image of a locomotive emerging from a tunnel. Expressing in words and symbols the primary slogans and goals of the regime, the float also highlighted Mexico's crowning achievement, the railroad. Moreover, the float gave new meaning to the parade as spectacle and educational tool. Businessmen quickly recognized the parade's potential for advertising their products. In 1899, 23 companies sponsored Independence parade floats. The ingenious decorators of these floats used national symbols of the past to help sell commercial products in the present. The procession of carros alegóricos became a mainstay of Independence Day celebrations, reaching perfection in the gigantic cavalcade of the Centennial of Mexican Independence in 1910.

Religious Processions during Porfirio D?az Policy

cuterichy — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 03:38:06 -0400

Civic Procession in Mexico

cuterichy — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 03:37:56 -0400

The triumph of the Tuxtepec Revolt that brought Díaz to power compelled him to search for legitimacy by upholding traditional republican state ceremonies such as the civic procession. Complying with national law, solemn inaugural ceremonies were held every time Díaz was reelected. Public officials, members of patriotic societies, and elites came from all over the republic to take part in formal civic manifestations. Leading bankers, businessmen, and industrialists organized parades, banquets, and fireworks displays in Díaz's honor. Most notably, the Círculo de Amigos de Díaz and the Círculo Nacional Porfirista, organizations devoted to keeping the general in power, coordinated the students, urban professionals, business owners, and bureaucrats who marched in support of Díaz every April 2, the anniversary of his siege of Puebla in 1867. Workers' associations routinely demonstrated their loyalty to Díaz by staging processions. In 1887, over 10,000 members of the Gran Congreso Obrero marched in a show of support for Díaz's reelection, and 34,000 select delegates participated in the Independence Day parade. In an attempt to co-opt labor, Federal District governor Guillermo Landa y Escandín established the Sociedad Mutualista y Moralizadora, the membership of which staged a pro-Díaz demonstration in April 1910. The patriotic march involved 5,000 workers from various Federal District factories.

From 1878 to 1887, important civic marches also took place every February 5, the anniversary of the promulgation of the Constitution of 1857. Díaz naturally promoted the legality of his own regime by endorsing the patriotic activities held on this date. The celebration of Constitution Day soared practically overnight after Díaz returned to power in 1884. In 1885 city councilmen and patriotic societies hired a musical band and invited delegates of mutual and workers' societies, students of the national schools, and the original signers (Constituyentes) of the Constitution of 1857 to march from the Alameda to the San Fernando Cemetery. Conspicuous on this day was the horse-drawn allegorical car representing Law, which carried a silver wreath that students later deposited at Benito Juárez's tomb. Rarely did the military participate in Constitution Day marches, which emphasized the ideals of popular liberalism and civilian rule. In reality, Constitution Day was less an occasion to commemorate the national charter than to exalt Juárez, its principal defender, who embodied these ideals. In 1887 Congress declared July 18, the anniversary of Juárez's death, a national holiday, displacing Constitution Day as the most important day of civilian procession. Thereafter, the celebration of February 5 was reduced to short speeches in the Alameda, while July 18 occasioned enormous civilian processions headed by Díaz in black homburg and topcoat.