Jaime Nunó

Today we’ll be going to party with our friends in Jesús María to celebrate Mexican Independence Day (which everyone will be celebrating today and tomorrow) (actually, the celebrations have been going since the beginning of September, let’s face it!)!

To get you in the mood wherever you are, I thought you might enjoy this video which shows the words of a song very familiar to us – the Mexican national anthem.  In the video the words are in Spanish with English below.

The words were written as a result of a competition and a very determined fiancée.

Apparently, Francisco González Bocanegra didn’t want to enter the competition, because he wrote love poetry, which was nothing like a country’s anthem.  His fiancée locked him into a room and refused to let him out until he gave it a try.

After four hours he slipped 10 verses of Mexicanos, al grito de guerra (Mexicans, at the cry of war) under the door, securing his release and eventually winning the contest.

The music was the result of another contest, won by Jaime Nunó, a military band leader.

The anthem has been officially translated into several of Mexicos’s other languages – Chinanteco, Hña Hñu, Mixteco, Maya, Nahuatl and Tenek.

Stay tuned for more Mexican stuff tomorrow!

[If you can’t see the video below, jump to this page]