Here's 26 seconds of video from the corner of 5 de Febrero and Venustiano Carranza, in downtown Mexico City, on the crisp and wet afternoon of September 10, 2009. Stands like this dot the city in September, selling patriotic knick-knacks leading up to Tuesday night, Sept. 15, when Mexicans around the world gather to (drunkenly) holler El Grito of independence.
Last year, in Morelia in President Felipe Calderón's home state, a grenade exploded during the fiestas patrias, killing eight and injuring dozens. That attack was labeled 'narcoterror' and blamed on a cartel. Completely unrelated, I hope, two small bombs have been detonated in the D.F. in front of chain businesses in the middle of the night this month. At one of them, a note was left calling for the liberation of Mexico's political prisoners.
Both those bombings, by the way, were on Tuesdays, Sept. 1, and Sept. 8.