This is our third visit to Mexico. Previous visits have been "Mexico City" and "Guadalajara And Mexico's West Coast".
Let's start our look at the southeastern part of Mexico in the town of Dolores Hidalgo. This is where the call for Mexican independence from Spain was first made, in 1810, by the priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla. The following scenes start inside the church in the central square. The statue of Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla can be seen in the square.
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Puebla is a colonial era city, began in 1531. It is between Mexico City and the Gulf of Mexico port of Veracruz. Puebla was an important battle site in the French Intervention in Mexico, and has been a center of European and Lebanese immigration. You may remember that Carlos Slim, once the richest man in the world, is of Lebanese ancestry in Mexico. The following scenes begin in the Cathedral of Puebla, adjacent to the Zocalo, the main square. Notice how the building of the Palacio Municipal, the city hall, resembles the National Palace in Mexico City.
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The city of Leon was an active battle site in Mexico's war of independence, the Reform War between Liberals and Conservatives and, the French Intervention. Here are some scenes of Leon starting in the Plaza Principal. The arch with the lion on the top, to celebrate the heroes from the city, can be thought of as Leon's version of the Arc de Triomphe, or the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel.
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This is the Expiatorio Temple in Leon.
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Did you know that the Mexican city of San Luis Potosi is named for a French king, Louis IX, that was so kindly and saintly that he became known as St. Louis? The United States also has a major city named for him. San Luis means St. Louis.
There was a Nineteenth Century war in Mexico, the Reform War between Liberals and Conservatives, and I see the way Conservatives supported the later French Intervention, while Liberals opposed it and ultimately triumphed, as a reflection of how America's Republicans (Conservatives) were the descendants of the French Bourbon Dynasty, as described in the posting on this blog, "America And The Modern World Explained By Way Of Paris".
San Luis Potosi was a very early and important colonial city. The following scenes begin inside the Metropolitan Cathedral of San Luis Potosi.
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The city of Veracruz is Mexico's most important port, and is on the Gulf of Mexico. It was founded by Hernan Cortes in 1519, and the name of the city means "The True Cross". It was perhaps the most important city of colonial-era Mexico for some time, and was heavily fortified against raids.
This city was a focal point of conflict between the U.S. and Mexico. During the Mexican Revolution of 1910, to overthrow President Porfirio Diaz and redistribute land, the U.S. Government became concerned about the investments that Americans had in Mexico's oil fields, and decided to send a force to watch the situation and evacuate Americans, if necessary.
During the operation, the U.S. Navy arranged to buy some fuel from a vendor in Veracruz. A group of U.S. sailors were sent in a boat to pick up the fuel, in drums. The sailors were in uniform, and none could speak Spanish. Some Mexican soldiers saw the sailors, and asked that they were doing. Since none of the sailors spoke Spanish, they could not answer. The soldiers arrested the sailors, and took them for questioning.
The sailors were released as soon as they had been questioned in English, but the admiral that was in charge of the U.S. Navy operation was outraged. He demanded a 21-gun salute to an American flag as a token of apology, which the Mexicans naturally refused. This led to U.S. forces landing, and occupying Veracruz for about six months. This is known as the Tampico Affair.
(This may remind readers of our visit to Algiers where the Dey, the Ottoman leader of Algeria, struck the French consul with a flyswatter during a dispute over debts owed to Algerians. The French took it as an act of war, landed and occupied the country, and the destinies of France and Algeria have been entwined ever since).
I have written before about how this 1910 Mexican Revolution, with it's redistribution of land to the common people and America's hostility to it, was a predecessor of the October Revolution that would come seven years later.
While the Tampico Affair was going on, the First World War was raging but America was not yet involved. The German High Command became concerned that America might enter the war on the Allied side. Following the Tampico Affair, they sent a coded telegram to the Mexican Government advising that if Mexico would join the Central Powers against the United States, it would regain the vast land area that it had previously lost to the United States that included Arizona and California.
The British spy service, known as Room 40, intercepted and decoded the telegram. The British Government debated over whether to warn America, because that risked giving away that they had broken the Germans' code. The decision was made to warn America, since it would likely bring a new ally into the war, and indeed this week is the 100th anniversary of America's entry into the First World War.
The following scenes begin in Fort San Juan De Ulua, in Veracruz. In an event that would later be mirrored in Fort Sumter and the Confederate States of America, after Mexico had gained independence Spanish forces remained in the fort, and refused to recognize the independence of Mexico.
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Campeche was originally a Maya city. The Maya were the other great Indian civilization of Mexico, along with the Aztecs who founded the predecessor to Mexico City. It became an important Spanish colonial city, founded in 1540, with old Spanish fortresses and walls, along with Mayan structures.
The following scenes begin outside Campeche's Cathedral.
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Merida is another very old city that was first Maya, and then Spanish, and then a vital city of independent Mexico. Unlike the U.S. and Canada, where no native languages are spoken as daily languages, the language of the Maya is still widely spoken here just as Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, is spoken in the central part of the country. The following scenes begin in the Cathedral of Merida.
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The development of Cancun as a resort began only in the early 1970s, but today it is one of the best-known beach resorts in the world.
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