Allende's Birthday Parade
Egad! My cameras are back in my luggage. All I have is my micro point-and-shoot. The battery is nearly depleted. It'll have to do.
Today is the birthday of Ignacio Allende, born here in San Miguel on January 21, 1769. He is a hero of Mexico's independence struggle. Our town was named after him, so his birthday is a big deal.
I arrive while the parade is setting up, to find these four traficantes standing at attention, spiffy in their rarely seen dress uniforms. I ask the guy on the right what's the occasion. He tells me to beat it. I guess some Mexican people don't like gringos.
Lose the hats and epaulets, and their uniforms leave them looking like Re/Max salesmen.
(Sorry about the snide remark. I don't take rejection well.)
The cops form up and come to attention. Awaiting the go signal. But of course, this show isn't going to get on the road at the official starting time. They stand like that for over an hour, probably because the Capitán told them to. Surely he knew better.
Mexico has marines, and to go with them, a marine band. A couple of marine band corpsmen warm up with scales as they wait for the parade to start. Is one of them a corpswoman? Are they all corpspersons?
Actually, one is a clarinetist and the other, a flautist. Musicians long ago abandoned gender-specific designations. It's that useful "ist" suffix that gets it.
I have to say I found this scene disturbing. I'm not accustomed to seeing armored personnel carriers and recoilless rifle vehicles at patriotic events.
I guess we need them. Drug lords have enough money to fund their own armies; Federal forces have to be able to counter them.
Check out this APC. The .30 caliber machine gun on top is not much good for heavy combat, but it'll do quite nicely on a civilian populace. Rubber tires mean urban use. So this weaponry won't be used to repel an incursion across the Texas border, nor to invade Belize.
But it is ideal for turning on your own people.
I don't know. Seems like too much power in the hands of the military. Would we tolerate these things in the streets north of the border?
In a parade, you want everything to be sharp. Soldiers touch up their vehicles with squirt bottles of cleanser and rags. While they're at it they clean their boots.
Could you turn these boys on their own people? They seem so innocuous.
Finally things get underway. Color guards from every school in town lead, wearing dress school uniforms, jaunty hats, and white gloves.
Every school fields its drum and bugle corps.
So does the army. Tell me, why do they parade in camouflage fatigues, helmets, and goggles? Carrying bugles?
Finally, we have one of those "only in Mexico" scenes: an elaborately costumed young man and four young ladies. He is carrying a banner that says, near as I can tell, Dragones de la Reina—the Queen's Dragons (Dragoons?). (The photo resolution is pretty bad.) I have no idea who they are or what they do.
But check out the man's uniform. A beret. A black tunic with a bunch of white yarn balls dangling from his upper arms. White gloves. White canvas belt with large brass buckle. Black fatigue pants with patch pockets, bloused over black boots, and white gaiters. He's stylin'.
His female has escort abandoned the military look just south of their berets. The Queen's Dragons' uniform of the day is very short skirts and four-inch spike heels. These young women are going to march for two miles over cobblestone streets in those things. And yes, they're very good at it. Not a single misstep.
The symbolism of their getups escapes me, but they somehow seem to fit right in. Tanks and heels, why not?
It's good to be home, with things back to normal.