El Pípila

Surging out of the bluff over the south side of Guanajuato is a hefty stone monument to El Pípila, a hero of the Mexican War of Independence (not to be confused with the equally strong figure of Mark, in the foreground).

According to the legend, on September 28, 1810, Manuel Hidalgo, the priest from Dolores Hidalgo, and his troops of campesinos reached the Alhóndiga, a large, stone, seemingly impenetrable granary building (see January 22 post) where the Spanish aristocrats were holding their ground.

Among Hidalgo's troops was Juan José de los Reyes Martínez, a young, strong, but perhaps somewhat debilitated miner; his nickname was el Pípila, the hen turkey. But on this day he would transcend his nickname. He strapped a stone slab to his back to protect himself from the Spaniards' rifle fire raining down from the walls of the Alhóndiga, and he ran with a torch to light the building's wooden doors on fire, allowing the troops to storm the building and initiating the first battle in the War of Independence, and the first victory for the Mexican troops.

The epigraph on the monument reads, "Aún hay otras Alhóndigas por incendiar" - There are still other Alhóndigas to burn.