Caballero with Flag
This week started with one of the biggest birthday parties in town. 244 years ago, Ignacio Allende, namesake of the town and one of the leaders of the revolution was born. This requires a major parade topped off with fireworks at the end of the evening.
Ready for the Charreada!
In Mexico I have found that parades have 4 required parts- Large numbers of school kids , preferable with drums, often with bugles!
- Flags.
- Well dressed horses with well dressed riders.
- Marching, marching and more marching.
Sadly , by the time I got to the parade and into position I had missed the marching kids. Usually each group of kids have their own flag representing their school or group. I wasn’t sad to miss their version of “battle of the bands” as each group of drums and horns plays a different piece within feet of the next group.
Send in the Cavalry! (Or the Rurales actually)
This time there were even more horses than usual with the addition of the Rurales, which is a part time militia that I wasn’t familiar with until seeing them in the parade.
Guess what , more marching!
Ghillie suit or cousin IT from the Adams Family???
I had good luck getting advantageous view points to get some good pictures of the parade. Being tall helps, but being lucky helped also.
Starbuck’s unintended climbing wall
Kids love parades but tend to be much shorter that I , but they did not let that get in their way. A little initiative and some thankfully strong bolts gave more than a few kids a clear view of the show. This was a not uncommon sight throughout the parade route.
Castillo in progress
After the parade, the building of the Castillos begins, the giant fireworks displays that are used to finish off the festivities. I guess these were to be the candles on the birthday cake so to speak. I made sure to bundle up against the evening chill, and get a good viewpoint. The fireworks did not disappoint!
4 comments:
Good man Allende. Too bad Hidalgo did not listen to him. One or the other could have been head of Mexico instead of having their heads spiked in Guanajuato.
Sadly an old story that doesn't seem to change, leaders that put their own solution above other stakeholders.
I remember the first time visiting Guanajuato city and seeing the cages that their heads were hung in after the executions and thinking "now that's an attack ad"!
Todd
Incredible photography, as always Todd. That last photo is magnificent and should be sold to the City of San Miguel!
Thanks Babs!
Todd
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