Ask anyone who went to San Martin de Hidalgo in mid September
and they will tell you the trip was a wild success. A delegation of
10 from Morgan Hill visited the little city in Jalisco, Mexico,
over the Mexican Independence Day celebration to help with the
festivities, to meet the people and to join forces as Sister
Cities, or
“hermanamientos” in Spanish.
Ask anyone who went to San Martin de Hidalgo in mid September and they will tell you the trip was a wild success. A delegation of 10 from Morgan Hill visited the little city in Jalisco, Mexico, over the Mexican Independence Day celebration to help with the festivities, to meet the people and to join forces as Sister Cities, or “hermanamientos” in Spanish.
“By all accounts, it was one of the most uplifting, heart-warming experiences any of us could remember in our respective lives,” said Peter Anderson, who went on the trip with his wife, Elena.
“The group experienced an enormous amount of pageantry, hand-shaking, proclamation reciting, plaque dedicating and other diplomatic and ceremonial activities. Every dignitary and their families had to shake our hands.”
Besides the Andersons, the delegation included Mayor Dennis Kennedy and his wife, Eileen, Chuck Dillmann, president of the Morgan Hill Sister City committee; Jesus (Jess) Ambriz, chairman of the Mexican Sister City subcommittee; Councilwoman Hedy Chang, Ida Williams, member of the committee and Bill Newkirk and his wife Lien. Bill is the city liaison with the Sister City committee.
“It was a fantastic experience,” Kennedy said after the trip.
When this small delegation from Morgan Hill stepped off the plane at Guadalajara Airport, they were met by a large delegation from San Martin, including el Presidente Municipal (mayor) Dr. Carlos Alberto Rosas Camacho and Salvador Zepeda, head of the San Martin Hidalgo Sister Cities Committee.
San Martin immediately took the Morgan Hill group under its protective wing and showed them a very good time, according to Dillmann, who wrote down his memories of the visit and kindly shared them with The Times.
First on the agenda was the Cultural and Arts Festival, held in the San Martin plaza, next to City Hall, where they were greeted by La Riena de Las Caballos (Queen of the Rodeo). Her parents are both active in the San Martin Sister City Committee. The festival continued with dancing, singing and instrumental performances.
When the party ended late at night the group dispersed to stay in private homes.
“So many people opened their homes to us,” Anderson said.
He said that, when the touring group – of 40, including the San Martin officials – visited the little town of Santa Cruz, with fewer than 100 inhabitants, the next morning, those 100 provided a huge breakfast for all.
“When I asked a woman how she managed,” Anderson said. “she said every person in town contributed something. One person did this, one person did that.”
The breakfast was hosted by local teachers, beginning a theme of schools and children that continued through the visit.
“ One clear priority of the citizens of San Martin Hidalgo is youth and education,” Dillmann said.
Breakfast came with a comic dance performance by women using canes and dressed as little, old men.
After breakfast the group took a walking tour to a house built over a period of 40 years.
“The owner said he called it the weekend house because he worked on it every weekend for 40 years,” Dillmann said.
Then they were off to the school, Niños heroes y josefa Ortiz de dominguez, where two of the members of the San Martin Sister City Committee are teachers.
“Although it was a holiday, several students were on hand to greet the visitors,” Dillmann said.
After the school visit, it was on to the signing ceremony where the two mayors signed proclamations of relations and exchanged gifts and plaques. Kennedy presented Rosas-Camacho with an engraved silver tray, commemorating the event.
The group viewed an old church that is having its frescos and gilt restored from a past, unadvised paint job that covered up this treasure. After another lunch with citizens and dignitaries and a rest – this was Sept. 15 – the group watched as San Martin prepared to celebrate its independence from Spain.
Traditionally a bell is rung by the mayor, governor or Mexican president, in towns and cities across Mexico at 11 p.m. the night before the anniversary of an uprising in 1810 that threw out the Spanish. The revolution turned the government over to Mexicans themselves. The 11 p.m. bell is accompanied by “El Grito” or the cry (to arms) that began the uprising.
Before the evening’s ceremony, the town celebrated with entertainment, temporarily interrupted, Dillmann said.
“Shortly into the entertainment and right after an Indian dance group performed a blessing to the Sun God, a thunderstorm moved in and everyone retreated to cover,” Dillmann said. “The next hour and a half was spent meeting some of the performers and many citizens. An Indian group performed a purification ceremony on many of the Morgan Hill entourage including Chang.”
Chang said she enjoyed taking part in the ceremony and the entire trip.
“It was just wonderful,” Chang said.
After the weather cleared, Kennedy received the key to the city, a police honor guard trooped the colors and presented the Mexican flag to Rosas-Camacho. El Presidente Municipal made a moving speech, Dillmann reported, and recited “El Grito” which ended in “Vivas” (cheers) from the crowd. Rosas-Camacho waved the flag, the bell rang and the crowd cheered, Dillmann said, not unlike an American independence celebration.
A dinner after the ceremony did not end for some participants, Dillmann said, until 3:30 a.m.
Independence Day itself was celebrated, as elsewhere, with a parade, led by the police honor guard, followed by children some in costume, some in school uniforms. La Riena de Las Caballos presented everyone with a ribbon in the colors of Mexico, to which was attached a little straw sombrero with a little serape and a piece of hard candy, Dillmann said.
After the parade, citizens of San Martin de Hidalgo and Morgan Hill returned to the plaza to honor Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, a hero of the revolution – it was he who first called “El Grito” – and who was born in the area. Both mayors, Dillmann and Ambriz placed wreaths of flowers at Hidalgo’s statue.
Kennedy and Dillmann unveiled a plaque, commemorating the Sister City relationship, mounted on the side of the plaza’s bandstand and had their photos taken with the queens and their escorts. The group also dedicated a new park built with funds raised from the community and matched by the town. The park, Dillmann said, is named for Morgan Hill.
After the park was dedicated, Kennedy and Dillmann each gave a soccer ball to a child and Kennedy moved into the goalie position while several youths kicked balls toward the goal.
“This proved that the mayor is not ready for World Cup competition,” Dillmann said.
“Everyone was very impressed with the friendliness and good spirits of the members of the community,” Dillmann said. He said he was also struck by how similar the surrounding terrain was to Morgan Hill’s.
“In the winter, when our hills are green, it would be difficult to separate pictures of the two areas,” Dillmann said.
Kennedy said a delegation from San Martin de Hidalgo has accepted his invitation to help Morgan Hill celebrate its independence on the fourth of July, 2004.
