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Until this past summer, I had never been inside our local Catholic church. In the past, we stayed away because we didn’t want to upset local evangelicals. Now we’re not overly concerned with that, but I still didn’t want to go waltzing in there by myself, because that can be frowned upon by some of the local Catholics. Having a Catholic intern this summer, though, gave me the perfect opportunity to have him show me around.

I learned that our town’s church is more than just a big sanctuary. It has an inner courtyard and a number of other rooms I never knew were there. One section looks like it could have been a monastery or convent in the past, though I have never actually heard this about it. I’ll have to ask around. It would fit the pattern of other cathedrals in our area, though.

I am told by locals that our cathedral is one of the three oldest in our region of the state, dating to about 1520. It was apparently constructed in the years immediately following the Spanish invasion.

Here are a few photos:

A couple of different views of the inner couryard. In the second, you have a rear view of the bell tower at the front of the building.

A really old painting, though I’m not sure of what. It looks like it could be Jesus breaking bread.

Statue of a Catholic saint. I don’t know who, and my Catholic friend who was with me wasn’t exactly sure either.

This is a large assembly in our town on Mexican independence day, September 16. It took place at the explanada, which is an open parade ground area next to our main government building. Many of the schools in town were there, uniformed and in formation, as were the town president and many other government officials:

The assembly at the explanada was followed by a parade through town. Here are a few photos from the parade:

Last Tuesday, September 16, was Mexico’s independence day. The fun begins on September 15, when cities have a large nighttime celebration with fireworks. This is capped by the grito (which means the “yell”, basically), usually at midnight, where a leader yells things like, “Viva México!” and “Viva la independencia!”, and the crowd responds by yelling, “Viva!”

The entire month of September is a patriotic month in Mexico, filled with different activities. Here are a few photos from the past couple of months and the night of the grito:

(By the way, my camera phone isn’t so impressive at night…well, or anytime, for that matter.)

These are from the daily flag lowering ceremony that was taking place at our central town park, which is right in front of our main government building

And a few photos from the “clock square” the night of the grito…the whole place was done up in green, white, and red lights with flags, banners, and a 30-foot firework tower. It was pretty sweet; I wish more of it came through in the photos. Thousands of people were downtown for the event, which lasted past midnight.

This is the firework tower, which had parts that spun and colorful flames that spelled out things like, “Viva México!”

The president of Mexico, Felipe Calderón, did indeed visit our little market town on Tuesday, as well as at least a couple of other towns and villages in our area. The site of his speech was actually not much more than a half mile from our house, so our whole neighborhood was crawling with security and overrun by the 10,000+ people who attended the speech.

One of several newspaper articles on the visit is here.

I attended the speech, along with four other GFM guys. It took us quite a while to get a hold of tickets (they were free, but everyone had to have one), but one of the guys finally found a man selling snowcones who had extra tickets. We got pretty close to the front and had a great view of the speech. Below are a few photos I took. They didn’t turn out great because they were just on my camera phone, but here they are anyway:

Hundreds of people lined up, waiting to get into the speech

One of five helicopters arriving carrying the president and a number of other government officials and security personnel

A large crowd and plenty of members of the media listen to the speeches

On the left is the governor of our state, and on the right is President Calderón

President Calderón at the podium speaking. Seated behind him are his wife, the governor of the state and the governor’s wife, and the president of our town, among others.

The crowd pouring out of the tent where the speech took place

What I liked about the event

• It was the first time since 17 years ago that a president of Mexico has visited our town, and I think it was an encouragement to the indigenous people, who often feel like the government doesn’t care about them (though I would argue that this perception is not necessarily based in reality).
• Calderón talked about all kinds of support, programs, and funding the federal government is giving our region, which is one of the poorer areas in Mexico. More importantly, though, he spoke out against the government corruption that has caused so many state and federal funds sent to the region over the years to disappear. In the first year and a half of his presidency, Calderón has taken a stand against government corruption, which has gained him plenty of enemies. Please pray for him and his efforts to combat corruption. Proverbs indicates that the entire country suffers when governors are corrupt.
• Mexico has a long history of problems in its government, but I have been encouraged the past year and a half by what I’ve seen in President Calderón, the governor of our state, and the new president of our town. It was neat to see all three of them on the same platform, committing themselves to working for the improvement of our region. Concerning our town president, he came into office in January, and it is very evident (unlike with many past town presidents) that he is working hard to make improvements. These past few months are the first time in my four years in Mexico that I’ve ever heard anyone speak well about those in government. When Calderón and the governor come this week and talk about the tens of millions of new pesos they’re putting into highway expansion and improvement, new hospitals, reforestation, and a number of other projects, I am much more inclined to believe them than I might have been in the past. Since January, we already see these things being done.
• I really like our new local president. One of the things I appreciate about him is his heart for the single women of Tlaxiaco, struggling to support families without the help of a husband. Both in his campaign platform and the two times I have heard him speak, he has had plenty to say about helping single women, which seems to me like one of the region’s greatest needs.