iViva Mexico!

"Viva Mexico! Viva Hidalgo y Morelos! Viva Mexico! Viva la coecion indestruible de la sociedad Mexicana!"

So went "El Grito de Dolores," shouted by Mexican Consul General Hector Vasconcelos '68 in front of a crowd of more than 1,000 that erupted in cheers after each declaration. After the final cry, the red, white and green of the Mexican flag were hoisted up for all to salute, and the sound of the Mexican National Anthem filled the room.

Enthusiastic students and area residents packed the Mexican Independence Day Celebration, held Sept. 15 at MIT's Johnson Athletic Center. The annual event was organized by the Mexican student associations of MIT, Harvard, the Berklee College of Music and Boston University, with support from the Mexican consulate in Boston.

According to Vasconcelos, who has participated in the event for the past three years, this festival mirrors one held in Mexico City on the same date in commemoration of the first call for Mexican Independence launched by Miguel Hidalgo in 1819.

"The same thing is done by the President in Mexico City, in every state capital in Mexico, and in every Mexican embassy and consulate around the world," he says. "The same 'Grito de Dolores' is shouted by the President, the mayor of every town and the Mexican diplomats."

The beginning of "El Grito" is the spoken the same everywhere, but each person who calls it out may add unique phrases.

"This year, I spoke of the indestructible cohesion of Mexican society," Vasconcelos says. "Despite the economic and political problems in Mexico, the underlying fabric of Mexican society is still strong."

"Traditions such as this reinforce our cultural bonds and strengthen our feeling of nationality," he adds.

While the pinnacle of the event was the "El Grito" ceremony and the singing of the national anthem, celebrations of Mexican culture played a prominent role in the four-hour event. On a stage at one end of the Athletic Center, Iliana Vasquez hosted a show that included groups of folk dancers and both pre-Hispanic and modern Mexican music performances. Vasquez, who hosts the local television show Pachanga Latina, has attended the event for several years, but was serving as emcee for the first time.

According to Alethia de Leon, president of the Mexican Student Association (MSA) at MIT, organizing an event as large as this one is difficult at the beginning of the school year. While planning began in May and continued over the summer, the event was still somewhat disorganized and did not go as smoothly as hoped.

Only one of the two Mexican restaurants that was supposed to serve food at the event showed up, and its workers did not know how to operate the stoves that MIT had set up. The result was a line for food that stretched across the dance floor and a large crowd still waiting when the last of the tacos ran out.

"I was sort of ashamed of the problem we had with the food," de Leon says. "We planned for 1,500 people, and would have had food for that many if two restaurants had shown up."

De Leon adds that while the event is organized by students from four universities, most of the burden falls on the Mexican association of the host school. The event moves from school to school each year, and was held at BU last year.

"The setup and cleanup was done almost exclusively by MIT students, but that was okay," she says. "Maybe we would have expected [the other schools' organizations] to help a little bit more at the door."

The early date of the event posed even more of a problem for Harvard students, who had arrived at school barely a week before the Sept. 15 celebration. For example, the Ballet Folklorico de Aztlan, a Harvard group that performed several traditional Mexican dances, crammed seven hours of practice into last weekend in preparation for the festival.

But the event's timing makes it ideal for attracting new members into the various Mexican student associations. At the main entrance to the Johnson Athletic Center, members of the Boston University Mexican Association (BUMA) were asking attendees to sign in and list their e-mail addresses and phone numbers.

"This type of event helps us a little with membership," says BUMA Treasurer Adrian Franco. "But it also helps us to learn about Boston's Mexican community--not only those who are studying here."

Several Harvard first-years attending the event said they felt the push to get involved and signed up on the list to hear about future Mexican and Mexican-American student events.

"I'm not too involved here yet," says Christopher A. Hunter '01, "but I was encouraged by this."

"[This event] was emotionally provoking," adds Jeffrey R. De Soto '01, who heard about the celebration from a friend at MIT.

The Independence Day celebration held special significance for Consul General Vasconcelos, who was a student at Harvard in the 1960s and has seen great changes in the area's Mexican community.

"When I was here, I was the only Mexican in Harvard College," Vasconcelos says. "There was not a single Mexican restaurant in Boston."

"I think a conscious effort has been made to include more non-Americans [at Harvard]," he says.

According to Vasconcelos, the Mexican government recently upgraded the Boston consulate, in recognition of the size of the Mexican community here.

"They are very much aware that there are more Mexicans at top universities in the United States," he says.