User:Thelmadatter/Bicentennial sandbox

During the year 2010, Mexico celebrated both the 200th anniversary of its Independence and 100th anniversary of its Revolution. The entire year was proclaimed by President Felipe Calderón as "Año de la Patria," or "Year of the Nation." 16 September 1810 is the day of the "Grito de Dolores" or Miguel Hidalgo's call to take up arms against Spanish colonial government. The start of the Mexican Revolution begam on 20 November 1910, when Francisco "Pancho" Villa and Pascual Orozco led the first insurrectionist attack. Events and other promotions of these celebrations were designed to link Mexico's identity and historic continuity. During a speech at the inauguration of the Casa de Allende (Allende's House) Historic Museum, Felipe Calderón called upon Mexico to use the anniversaries to reflect on where the country has been and to think about what kind of Mexico descendents will inherit in the future. He said the vision of the insurgents of the War of Independence was forward, not backward, so every celebration of these past events must consider the future as well. In the Zocalo (main square) in Mexico City a large digital clock is counting down to the 15 September 2010 and 20 November 2010 dates. Similar countdown clocks are located in the cities of Cuernavaca, Tlaxcala, Chilpancingo, Tepic, Nayarit. and all the other capital cities of the 31 states.

Preparations at the national level

The national committee to organize celebrations for both events was created by decree in March 2006 by President Vicente Fox, after Congress declared that the year 2010 should be dedicated equally to both anniversaries. The committee was made up of members from across the political spectrum, not just Fox's PAN party, and this committee named Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano, the founder of the PRD party as its head. After the disputed presidential elections between Felipe Calderón (PAN) and Andrés Manuel López Obrador (PRD) in July 2006, Cárdenas resigned from the committee in protest. The following March, Calderón announced that he would be heading the committee but still wanted the support of everyone, regardless of political affiliation.

Calderón officially installed the Organizing Committee of the Commemoration of the Bicentennial of the Start of the Movement of National Independence and Centennial of the Start of the Revolution in March 2007. In 2007, at the 97th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution, Calderón presented the Base Program of the Commemoration of the Bicentennial of the Start of Independence and the Centennial of the Start of the Mexican Revolution. The Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (CONACULTA) was charged with advising the committee.

Highlighted among the many preliminary were exhibits of pre-Hispanic, Spanish, modern and contemporary Mexican art at the most important capitals of the world, historic routes, shows, publications, seminars, the opening of 10 new archeological sites, maintenance to the country's most important pre-Hispanic sites and the remodeling of thirty museums. This work involves a complex museography and the consolidation of historic buildings in six states to commemorate the Independence and historic buildings in eight states to commemorate the Revolution, with a budget of over 300 million pesos.

Preparations by the federal government were international in scope as well. Magdalena Carral was the general coordinator of the Commemorative Activities of 2010 of the Secretariat of Foreign Relations (SRE). She says that Mexico has 147 diplomatic missions in various parts of the world and each of these would promote and celebrate Mexico's Bicentennial during 2010 with cultural events, designed to show the world that "Mexico is a country that commemorates its past and visualizes its future." The coordination was created in 2008 and works closely with the National Commission of the Bicentennial, headed by José Manuel Villalpando. Mexico is also involved with the Grupo Bicentenario de Latinoamérica (Latinamerican Bicentennial Group). This group is coordinating the programs and activities happening between 2009 and 2011 as most Latin American countries celebrate their bicentennials. This group includes ten countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Paraguay, Mexico and Venezuela. Spain is part of the group as a guest. The group was created in 2007, and designed to help the member nations coordinate and propagate debates, publications, celebrations and festivals.

Print and other media were to promote understanding and anticipation of the upcoming events. The television network Televisa produced a historical "television-novel" to commemorate the Bicentennial, which will be titled "Senda de gloria" or "Path of Glory." It is being produced with the cooperation of the Office of the President of Mexico. More academically, one of the major projects is the publication of a fourteen-volume work discussion how Mexico has arrived at the 21st century, written by more than 100 researchers from the El Colegio de México. One of the volumes is a Dictionary of the Spanish of Mexico, another is an analysis of Mexico's condition in the 21st century and a number are devoted to the history of each of the states and the economy of the country.

On 6 September 2009, Felipe Calderón lit the "Fuego Bicentenario" or Bicentennial Fire in front of the National Palace. This flame will travel all around Mexico during the next twelve months.

Commemorative routes

The most visible preparation to date in Mexico itself is the appearance of "Ruta 2010" signs on many of the nation's highways and roads in most Mexican states. These routes have been created to link monuments related to the two events as well as movements of armies and other key players of both the Bicentennial and Centennial. The Secretariat of Communications and Transportation is in charge of allocating resources to signal these roads and provide tourist information both on their website and on the roads themselves. These routes connect historical sites like the Casa del Marques in the historic center of Mexico City, the San Diego Fort Museum in Acapulco, the Museum of the Viceroyalty, the National Museum of Anthropology, the National History Museum, the Casa de Allede Museum, the Casa Morelos Museum, the Alhóndiga de Granaditas and the Museum of the Casa of Padre Hidalgo.

These roads are subdivided by the specific event they trace. The Independence Road, which includes the Freedom Route, follows the path of Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla from Dolores Hidalgo, Guanajuato, to the state of Chihuahua, passing through a number of other states such as Querétaro and Michoacán. This road traces the first campaigns of the War of Independence to the site of Hidalgo's execution. The Sentiments of the Nation Route, named after the eponymous document by José María Morelos y Pavón, follows his campaigns through the states of Michoacán, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Morelos, Mexico State, Puebla, Veracruz and Chiapas. The Route of the Three Guarantees maps out the campaigns fought by Agustín de Iturbide, who brought the War for Independence to a close in 1821. The runs from Iguala, Guerrero, to Mexico City.

Routes following the major events of the Mexican Revolution include the Democracy Route, mostly outlining the road taken by Francisco I. Madero from Ciudad Juárez to Mexico City after being elected president in 1911. The route starts in Parras, Coahuila, his hometown, and passes through the cities of San Luis Potosí, Ciudad Juárez, Piedras Negras, Torreón, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes and León. The Zapatista Route traces the operations of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation through the states of Morelos, Puebla and Mexico State. The Constitutionalist Revolution Route is the conjunction of the routes of Venustiano Carranza, Álvaro Obregón, Francisco Villa and Pablo González Garza, four other key players of the Revolution. These routes wander through just about all of the northern and central states.

Preparations by federal entity

All 31 states and the Federal District have set up their own Bicentennial/Centennial commissions, with the first meeting of state commissions in Dolores Hidalgo, Guanajuato, which has been declared the "Capital of the Bicentennial."

Federal District (Mexico City)

Most of Mexico City's preparations for 2010 is to have a commemoration of the Bicentennial/Centennial which is "social and critical" in focus. Most projects are designed to look at these events in a different way and to involve young people. One initiative that the city is supporting is called the "Casa de América Latina," a moving museum that will visit the countries scheduled to have bicentennial celebrations in the upcoming years. It is scheduled to be in Mexico City in 2010. In conjunction with this, the city intends to sponsor a debate and lecture about "Iberoamerican culture." This effort is headed by Carlos Fuentes. In various cities in Spain, an exposition called "Ciudad de México, Ciudad solidaria, Capital de asilos" (Mexico City: Capital of Solidarity, Capital of asylum), consisting mostly of instamatic photographs. It looks back on the role as a refuge for political refugees from fascists regimes of World War II as well as from other Latin American countries. Closer to home, a thirteen-chapter television series with the title of "Expedición 1808, travesía por los bicentenarios de Iberoamérica" (Expedition 1808: a journey through the Bicentennials of Latin America). It will focus on seven capital cities, including Madrid and will be hosted by seven young people.

Physical preparations in the city include a Commemorative Arch on Paseo de la Reforma, the new Mexican Children's Library, a Virtual Museum, the movement of the General Archive of the Nation to a new building. The Turkish government is restoring a clock given to Mexico for its Centennial celebrations by the Ottoman Empire.

State preparations

As of August 2009, most of the preparations have been in the way of restoring historical buildings and sites related to the Bicentennial or the Centennial. Museums in Guanajuato state such as the Casa de Allende Museum, the Museum of Dolores Hidalgo, and the Alhóndiga de Granaditas have been remodeled and/or inaugurated at a cost of seven million pesos. In Querétaro, the 688,925 m² (170-acre) Bicentennial Park has been inaugurated in the north of the capital. In Mexico State, six cities have been declared "Bicentennial Cities," and slated for improvements in their industrial zones, roadways, parks and public space. In Guerrero, the National Institute of Anthropology and History is working to declare the entire old downtown of Chilpancingo as a historic site, due to the multiple events of both the War of Independence and the Revolution that occurred there. The state of Nuevo León has 156 projects related to the two anniversaries and the state of Chihuahua will be celebrating the 300th anniversary of its capital city along with the other two.

A number of events have been definitively planned, including those in Zacatecas. These are being organized by the Asociación Estatal de Cabalgantes Unidos (State Association of United Horsemen), who have planned mostly horse-related events including the VI cabalgata nacional turística revolucionaria (VI National Tourist Revolutionary Horse Show), which will happen in 2010 in commemoration of the Battle of the Taking of Zacatecas in 1914. The state commissions for the southern states met recently to announce its schedule of events for the year 2010, including a large exposition at the National Palace sponsored by these states jointly.