Zihuatanejo

Date: November 23, 2023

We arrived at Zihuatenejo the day before the annual celebration of the Mexican Revolution. The revolution started on November 20 in 1910 as a result of growing dissatisfaction with president Porfirio Diaz who had been in power almost without interruptions since 1876. Presidential candidate Francisco I. Madero called for an armed uprising after having been jailed during his campaign for the presidency in 1910. The revolution lasted for about ten years and led to a new constitution in 1917 promoting labor rights, land reforms, secularization, and economic nationalism.

Most of the parade consisted of the local youth sports associations. Several of them had the girls dressing up as "Adelitas", the idealized female revolutionary soldadera with braids and a colorful dress adorned with a wooden gun and ammunition belt across the chests, symbolizing the role of Mexican women in the revolution:

The different groups would carry banners with the name of the sports association or sometimes names of heroes from the revolution or, in this case, the name of the local hero Nicolas Bravo who fought in the independence war of Mexico (1810-1821) so about a hundred years before the revolution.

Here, the weapon toting girls were accompanied by young boys dressed up in shirts, hats and boots:

They did a little dance show in front of the judges. The nearest couple (with the girl in the pink dress) were dancing with particular enthusiasm and seemed to be enjoying themselves very much:

In other cases the girls were cheerleading. Here is one such group parading past the judges' panel:

Next up was an acrobatic show:

Some of the parades were more military, like this group playing marching band music:

Most of the center of town was closed for traffic to allow the parade to proceed:

These young people had really made an effort with the costumes, especially when keeping in mind that the temperature was well above 30 degrees Celcius:

After the youngsters had finished their parade a number of other groups participated. We saw medical personnel with their lab coats and scrubs on, police, and finally the horses came out:

Here is the view over Zihuatenejo from a nearby hill top: