#EnVivoAhora | Masiosare: Ceremonia del Grito de Independencia (11/09/2026)

Topic: The Cry of Independence Ceremony Panel: History and Present Panelists: Karla Motte, Cristina Gómez, Sara Hidalgo, and Lorenzo Meyer A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CRY OF INDEPENDENCE CEREMONY In 1812, Ignacio López Rayón, president of the Zitácuaro Junta, led the first Cry of Independence ceremony on September 16th in Huichapan. A year later, in 1813, José María Morelos established in his Sentiments of the Nation that “September 16th be solemnly commemorated every year as the anniversary of the day on which the cry for independence and our sacred liberty was raised.” In 1843, President Antonio López de Santa Anna decreed that the Grito de Independencia (Cry of Independence) ceremony would take place at eleven o'clock on the night of September 15th, instead of the 16th, to "avoid the fatigue of waking up early to celebrate the event." In 1847, following the occupation of Mexico City by the United States Army on September 14th, and the subsequent departure of the federal government to Querétaro, the capital's authorities canceled the Grito de Independencia ceremony. This remains the first and only time the Grito de Independencia ceremony has been canceled. In 1853, a call was issued to write the National Anthem, which was performed for the first time on September 15th of that year, although the dictator Santa Anna did not attend the performance. For this reason, the anthem was repeated the following day, this time with the dictator present. In 1864, seeking to legitimize his rule, Emperor Maximilian of Habsburg held the Grito de Independencia (Cry of Independence) ceremony in the town of Dolores. In 1896, the original bell of the Dolores Parish, also known as the San José bell, was moved to the National Palace by order of Porfirio Díaz. By 1907, with the upcoming commemoration of the Centennial of Mexican Independence, the Porfirio Díaz regime established the National Centennial Commission, which was tasked with planning monumental celebrations and the inauguration of monuments to commemorate independence, but also the apparent success of the Porfirio Díaz government. In 1913, following the coup against President Francisco I. Madero, dictator Victoriano Huerta held a closed ceremony with restricted access to the Zócalo to commemorate the Grito de Independencia. General Cárdenas was the first post-revolutionary president to travel to Dolores Hidalgo to give the Grito de Independencia (Cry of Independence) in 1940. In 1969, Gustavo Díaz Ordaz visited Dolores Hidalgo and, after the customary ceremony, went to the town's jail and freed the prisoners, emulating Father Hidalgo. In 1980, José López Portillo was the first to recognize Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez among the heroes of independence. In 1986, President Miguel de la Madrid was met with loud boos during the Grito de Independencia ceremony due to his government's poor handling of the earthquake that had struck the previous year. In 2010, President Felipe Calderón led the ceremony commemorating the bicentennial of the start of the War of Independence. The event was marked by excessive spending and a spectacular display of musical groups and technological effects. In 2020, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador held the Grito de Independencia (Cry of Independence) ceremony without an audience in the Zócalo, due to the health emergency caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Five years later, in 2025, for the first time, the Independence Day celebration was led by a woman. Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, from the National Palace, changed the traditional format by highlighting female figures during the Grito, including Josefa Ortiz Téllez-Girón, Leona Vicario, Gertrudis Bocanegra, Manuela Medina, anonymous women, Indigenous women, and migrants. Furthermore, for the first time in history, the flag was presented by female officers from the Heroic Military College. Masiosare is a co-production of Canal Once and Canal 22.