Grab Bag #40
Exploding cannons, secret water tanks, and funeral pick-pockets from ye olde San Francisco.
Monday, September 16th, was Mexican Independence Day. Commemorating the anniversary of Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla’s call to rise up against Spain in 1810, it does not get the same attention or beer-company advertising budgets as Cinco de Mayo (which celebrates a specific battle victory).
September 16th used to be a bigger deal among San Francisco’s Mexican community, especially in the mid 1860s. Monarchists in Mexico had conspired with France, Austria, and Belgium to force the Mexican Republic out of power and install an Austrian archduke as emperor.
The United States survived its civil war and President Benito Juarez was fighting to regain his country. Thus, in San Francisco in 1865, there was a lot of fervor for independence and republicanism in the air.
