Guanajuato is an old Spanish Colonial silver-mining city that is located near Mexico's mountainous geographic center. The climate is cool, dry and sunny; and the buildings and their surroundings are so pretty and colorful it's hard to recall Guanajuato's bloody past.
Guanajuato was at the center of the Mexican Revolution of 1810 – the revolution
that Mexico celebrates on September 16 as its Independence Day. Briefly, on September 15, 1810, Father Hidalgo assembled a number of (mostly) Mexicans and Indians from the lower socioeconomic castes in the town of Dolores and urged them to revolt against the Spanish crown. The people's hatred of Spain ran deep (as did the economic gap that naturally evolved from the local silver mining industry, i.e., the Indians and Mexicans did the mining; the Spaniards and upper-caste criollos kept the silver). The roar of the crowd in response to Hidalgo's encouragement to overthrow the government is now celebrated on the evening of September 15 as "La Noche del Grito" (loosely translated, "the night of the enraged scream"). The crowd followed Hidalgo,Ignacio Allende and other leaders from Dolores to Atotonilco, then to San Miguel, adding to its number along the way. Riots, arson and looting were involved. The improvised army – ultimately about 12,000 men, women and children – circled from San Miguel back to Guanajuato. On September 28, 1810, they stormed the Spaniards who had barricaded themselves in the fortresslike public granary, el Alhóndiga de Granaditas. One of the insurgents, a miner nicknamed El Pipila, burned down (or blew up, depending on which version of history you prefer) the entrance doors to the Alhóndiga; a monument dedicated to him overlooks the old center of Guanajuato.
The insurgent army fought the Spaniards room to room in the Alhóndiga. You
can still see the bullet holes. According to historian T.R. Fehrenbach,* no Spaniard survived, but the insurgents nevertheless continued to burn and loot Guanajuato. Many more lives were lost and the survivors never forgot the massacre. The revolution soon failed and Spain recaptured Guanajuato. As vengeance for the uprising the Spanish commander ordered a decimation of the Indian and half-caste populations. The four principal leaders of the uprising – Hidalgo, Ignacio Allende, Juan de Aldama and José Mariano Jiménez – were pursued, captured and executed. In July, 1811, Spain returned their heads to Guanajuato, placed them in iron cages, and hung them for public view from hooks on each of the granary's four corners. The heads remained suspended from the granary for 21 years.
You can still see the iron hooks from which the heads were displayed. Small wonder that Mexico's desire for independence did not die with the insurgents.
* "Fire and Blood – A Bold and Definitive Modern Chronicle of Mexico"
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