Better than Groucho

Tonight was the grito, the night before Independence Day when the President shouts the traditional revolutionary war cry that ends with several shouts of "Viva Mexico!" Ostensibly President Fox was returning to an old tradition in chooseing to shout the last grito of his six-year term in the town of Dolores Hidalgo, Guanajuato, the site of the original declaration.

The change of venue was precipitated in large part, though, by the messy camps still set up in the Zocalo housing AMLO and his supporters. Lopez Obrador had promised, as the legitimate president, to present his own version of the grito that evening, upstaging the traditional celebration. The event went off without a hitch in PAN-dominated Guanajuato, where Fox is still treated like a rock star. Predictably, the President threw in a shout-out to Mexico's institutions - besides himself, the main punching bag for the political opposition for the last two months. (Read here for more on Mexican Independence and presidential grito extemporizing)

As is normal at this time of year, the street corners have been taken over by vendors selling flags from size tiny to big enough to be a bedspread for a California King. Though I thought I had seen everything, it took me a day or two to figure out why all of a sudden so many people were selling long, thick fake mustaches on the street. Viva Zapata!

The Man... the Revolutionary War hero...the Mustache...