page_title: Cry of Dolores
section_title: Historical event
hierarchical_section_title: Cry of Dolores / Historical event
caption_attribution_description: Español: Imagen extraida del libro de Vicente Riva Palacio, Julio Zárate (1880) "México a través de los siglos" Tomo III: "La guerra de independencia" (1808 - 1821)
context_page_description: The Cry of Dolores occurred in Dolores, Mexico, on 16 September 1810, when Roman Catholic priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla rang his church bell and gave the call to arms that triggered the Mexican War of Independence.
  Every year on the eve of Independence Day, the President of Mexico re-enacts the cry from the balcony of the National Palace in Mexico City, while ringing the same bell Hidalgo used in 1810.
context_section_description: In the 1810s, what would become Mexico was still New Spain, part of the Spanish crown. The independence movement began to take shape when José Bernardo Gutiérrez de Lara went to the small town of Dolores (now known as Dolores Hidalgo) and asked the local Roman Catholic priest, Miguel Hidalgo, to help initiate an effort to free New Spain from Spanish control.
  Gutiérrez de Lara went to Washington, D.C. for military support (being the first Mexican to do so). Hidalgo remained in Dolores, waiting for Gutiérrez de Lara to return with military support. However, fearing arrest, Hidalgo told his brother Mauricio to make the sheriff free the pro-independence inmates there. Mauricio and armed men set 80 inmates free in the early morning of 16 September 1810. Around 2:30 a.m., Hidalgo ordered the church bells to be rung and gathered his congregation. Flanked by Ignacio Allende and Juan Aldama, he addressed the people in front of his church, urging them to revolt. His speech became known as the "Cry of Dolores".
  The liberated country adopted Mexico as its official name. Mexico's independence from Spain took a decade of war. Gutiérrez de Lara commanded and led Mexico to victory. Independence was achieved by the Declaration of Independence of the Mexican Empire on 28 September 1821. However, Hidalgo is credited as being the "father of his country".
caption: Image extracted from the book by Vicente Riva Palacio, Julio Zárate (1880) "México a través de los siglos" Tomo III: "La Guerra de Independencia" (1808 - 1821).
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