Mexicans rattled by tests on war heroes' bones

Posted 10m ago
By Chris Hawley, USA TODAY

MEXICO CITY — For 85 years, the heroes of Mexico's War of Independence have rested in peace, encased in glass boxes and buried beneath a massive monument made of stone and gold leaf in the center of Mexico City.

So the government's decision to unearth the patriots' bones and submit them to forensic tests, just three months before the country's Sept. 15-16 bicentennial celebration, has left many Mexicans dumbfounded.

"What a stupid thing to do," fumed Veronica Soto, 45, a patent clerk, as she sat in the shadow of the now-empty Independence Monument. "They're throwing our history into doubt just when we're supposed to be the most proud of it."

The authenticity of the 12 patriots' remains has been a matter of dispute, because many of them were captured, executed, mutilated and then tossed into unmarked graves by Spanish soldiers during Mexico's 1810-1821 war for independence from Spain.

One patriot, Miguel Hidalgo, was beheaded. His head hung for 10 years from a building in Spanish-controlled Guanajuato as a warning to other rebels.

This month, scientists at Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History plan to give a preliminary report on the bones' condition. The glass cases were removed from the monument three weeks ago.

The institute says it will not deliver a verdict on the bones' authenticity, but it will come close. Its tests are aimed at determining the "age, height, sex, ethno-genetic characteristics, anatomical variations, signs of disease and fractures, among other things," the institute said in a written statement.

In newspapers and television programs, commentators have assailed the study as disrespectful and unpatriotic.

"All that effort dying for the fatherland … only to be shaken awake," columnist Guillermo Sheridan wrote in the moderate newspaper El Universal. He worried the remains could become "victims of political marketing."

Columnist John Ackerman of the leftist newspaper La Jornada called the bones' removal part of a "sinister project" aimed at eroding Mexicans' sense of liberty.

"Why are they doing this now?" asked Juan Carlos RamÃ*rez, a 48-year-old security guard. "We've got unemployment, crime, all these problems — why do we have to go and dig up our heroes right now?"

The monument turned mausoleum is entwined deeply with Mexican culture. At 11 p.m. every Sept. 15, Mexicans gather in town plazas nationwide to hear politicians recite the names of the patriots entombed there. After each name, the crowds shout "Viva!" — long may he live.

As part of the bicentennial celebration, the government is sending a book with biographies of the patriots to every household in Mexico. It has set up Facebook pages for each of them.

Three of the independence fighters buried under the monument have Mexican states named after them: Miguel Hidalgo, José MarÃ*a Morelos, Vicente Guerrero and Andrés Quintana Roo. Major cities bear the names of Mariano Matamoros and Guadalupe Victoria.

The other six are Ignacio Allende, Juan Aldama, Mariano Jiménez, Xavier Mina, Leona Vicario and Nicolás Bravo.

After the 1821 Treaties of Córdoba giving Mexico its independence, Mexican troops were sent to find the graves of Mexico's independence leaders and collect their bones.

The remains were housed in the Metropolitan Cathedral until 1925, then moved to the crypt under the Independence Monument, a 119-foot-high stone pillar topped by a golden statue of Nike, the Greek goddess of victory. Most Mexicans call the statue "The Angel," and it is one of the country's best-known landmarks.

A marble plaque above the crypt's door reads "From the Nation to the Heroes of Independence."

"If (the bones) turn out not to be the heroes, where does that leave the Mexican people?" Ackerman said.

Some, however, said the bones' authenticity doesn't matter.

"It doesn't make sense for the government to do this now," said Juan Mantufar, a 21-year-old engineering student, as he looked up at the monument. "But the important thing is what these people did, not whether their bones are real. They still sacrificed their lives for our country."

Hawley is Latin America correspondent for USA TODAY and The Arizona Republic

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2010 ... ones_N.htm