This year in one of my classes on culture, I learned something that I’ll bet not too many people know.

If you live outside of Mexico, you may not heave heard the name José María Morelos.  But he’s a famous guy down here.  We see him often, as a matter of fact - well, images of him.  Our state is named after him (Morelos).  There’s a huge statue of him in downtown Cuernavaca.  His face can be seen on the 50 peso bill.  He’s got a city named after him (the city where he was born, now called Morelia).  He’s in paintings, on monuments - this is one important guy in Mexican history.

Morelos was a priest.  He became a leader in Mexico’s struggle for independence from Spain, which makes him a national hero today.  You can read more about him in this article by Wilbert H. Timmons

Morelos is usually pictured wearing a bandana wrapped around his head.  But many people don’t know why.  He’s wearing it because he has a migraine.

That’s right.  Mexico’s hero suffered from terrible migraine attacks.  He wrapped a cloth tightly around his head to try to dull the pain (not an unheard of treatment, by the way).

Morelos is a very unique migraineur because you can still see him wearing the badge of the pain he had to go through.  Here you can see a painting of him from the Palacio de Justicia (Palace of Justice) in Morelia (photo courtesy of eperales).  Below is a 1 peso coin (no longer in circulation) (photo courtesy of TFDuesing).  Finally, I’ve posted a photo of the statue that’s downtown here in Cuernavaca (photo courtesy of apparentbliss).

So there you go, a fellow migraineur who’s a lot more famous than me.  And now you know the rest of the story.

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