“We all come for our taste. I come with my family. We come at our will for López Obrador and we are very happy.” Guadalupe Escalante works as a seamstress and doesn’t need anyone to ask her to cry that the haulage is a thing of the past.
It is a few minutes before 23.00 hours, at which point the president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, will launch his first Cry of Independence, and in access to the Zocalo through the avenue 20 of November there is no pin. The whole square is overflowing. And there are still people behind the police cordons who control the accesses. In total, 130,000 attendees, according to data from the Ministry of Citizen Security of Mexico City.
The first cry of López Obrador’s stage at the helm of the Mexican government was the thermometer, 10 and a half months after taking possession, of its popularity. Nothing to do with the chiflidos and angry blankets of the previous six-year period, that of Enrique Peña Nieto, there were also no trucks coming from other states or paid for by institutions or municipal governments.
“Last year they were with his bracelet, his cake and his atole. I never stood here for that one,” Escalante says. In his view, the new executive has already brought changes, especially in the fight against corruption.
Read: The Golden Eagle, the national symbol that is endangered
If the 2018 Grito was the farewell of Peña Nieto and his “special guests”, the 2019 exhibition is a popular out-of-life exhibition by López Obrador. A year earlier, the outgoing representative was heard. Now, the new president was greeted with a “you’re not alone.”
This is summarized by Francisco Rivera, 47, from Mexico City. “I’m here to see change with a different government.” In ten months it has changed, little by little, because you’re not going to change the world in a few days,” says the man, who sports a “I am 132” movement shirt.
From the early afternoon the Zocalo began to fill. With an hour before López Obrador peeked out of the balcony of the National Palace to launch his 20 “living” it was already difficult to walk around the inside of the square.
There were those who tried to gain a few meters by vociferously “child care” while the offspring staggered, terrified, on his shoulders. Also who surrendered to the crowd and left the square before the president made an appearance. In general, no one did anything because the bodies were so tight that moving a few centimeters could trigger a chain reaction of unpredictable consequences.
Unlike previous years, no metal detectors were installed at the accesses. There were three police filters. Officers were watching for pyrotechnics not to be introduced.
Waiting for López Obrador’s departure was 26-year-old Anayeli Peña. “You see it’s something different and let’s see how this six-year thing goes with the new president. This year there’s more atmosphere, people are back supporting the president,” he said.
Of all the reasons why someone was able to move to the Zocalo to witness the Scream of Independence, it is possible that Luis Gaspar ‘Chino’ Valeriano’s is one of the most unappealable. His daughter Mia Naomí, who studies the fifth year in the primary Master Arqueles Vela Salvatierra had been commissioned by his teachers to see something representative of the festivities. So the family moved to the vicinity of the National Palace.
Valeriano emphasized the importance of commemorating the independence and life of “heroes who gave us homeland, like Morelos”. The man, who works in various tianguis in Mexico City, recognized that the situation in Mexico is not good. He is originally from Guerrero and still remembers the times when “you could walk at night and safe”.
“This is the president’s first year, we expect him to fulfill what he promised in the campaign,” he said.
Next to them was Jesus Sanchez, a man who had come with his wife and son Jesus. The father, wearing a mask of López Obrador. The son, with Peña Nieto’s. “I’m taking him to make the joke, ” he said.
“We come every year, but this special because we come with our president. Last year came many people from the State of Mexico. Now there are no foreign trucks around the Zocalo. People came on their own feet. She’s convinced it’s a change we’re causing,” Sanchez said.
In the meantime, in the meantime, it was difficult to find someone who did not express his adherence to the representative. Javier Valencia, a bank worker, is one of them. “This is part of nationalism. I’m not a follower of Andrés Manuel, but I like to come every 15 September,” he said. “It’s the first time I’ve seen this full. There’s a lot of excitement, I think people are hypnotized,” he added, laughing.
The subject of the hauls, or the lack of them, was on everyone’s lips. For example, Ricardo Zúñiga, who came to the event with a poster claiming “good government,” noted that cry-goers were “pure people with conviction.” He went to the Zocalo “to celebrate with the president the first cry after years of no celebration.”
The hauls have been part of the scream landscape for the past few years. So social media missed them. Suddenly, someone said there were buses behind the cathedral. But there all there was the transport of the CECAM philharmonic band, santa María Tlahuitoltepec, in Oaxaca. Or the service for the guests of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Later, in the vicinity of the Palace of Fine Arts, a couple of buses appeared.
The first, funded by the municipality of Comitán, in Chiapas, as indicated by its coordinator, Heriberto Jiménez, who identified himself as a municipal worker. “I just know they donated the truck to us,” he said.
The second, tapachula city council workers with some relatives. Like Ariel de Jesus, who accompanied her mother, employed in the consistory, on the journey. Everyone claimed to have participated voluntarily. “He who wanted was to sign up and the one who did not, no, ” said De Jesus.
Two buses (and a third from Puerto de Veracruz) is enough to rule out the haul. After years when the cry became the scene of dispute between supporters and detractors of the government, the Zocalo testified that the context has changed: López Obrador enjoys great credit. He’s got almost a whole sex endenium ahead of him.
What we do in Animal Político requires professional journalists, teamwork, dialogue with readers and something very important: independence. You can help us keep going. Be part of the team.
Subscribe to Animal Politician, receive benefits and support free journalism.#YoSoyAnimal
