One of my favorite things in this city is the celebration of Mexico’s Independence Day. Today, September 16th, is like the 4th of July in the U.S., except they celebrate for days! The entire week before the big day, the Macro Plaza in Piedras Negras turns into something that I would compare to the “Taste of Chicago.” Mexico’s 31 states are all represented by 31 different tents selling delicious traditional food from each of the states. Last night, September 15th, was “El Grito,” or “The Shout.” Basically, everyone meets up in the plaza and shouts “¡Viva Mexico!” and watches the fireworks. And then the actual day of the 16th is the holiday – most stores are closed, kids don’t go to school, and everyone just kind of relaxes (and recovers from being out past bedtime last night). So…Happy Independence Day!

You can hardly move because of all the people EVERYWHERE in the plaza.

These are some of the foods that Victor’s family serves at their tent (from left to right):
Tamales, Empanadas (my favorite), and Pozole

They put on a great fireworks show this year!

Piedras Negras is known as ¨the strong border of Mexico,¨ or ¨la frontera fuerte de Mexico.¨ Posts on ¨frontera fuerte¨ will be dedicated to sharing more about the city and the area of the world that I have grown to love. So, welcome to the tour!

For this first tour update, I would like to give you an idea of our location. Piedras Negras is situated directly across from the Rio Grande on the other side of Texas. The only thing that separates Piedras Negras from Eagle Pass, Texas, is a bridge to get across the river.

San Antonio, Texas, is about 2.5 hours from us, and if you would ever like to come for a visit, that´s the airport you would fly into! No international flights necessary here. Easy peasy!

We are also in the middle of the dessert. Think dry heat and cacti. The closest big body of water, the Gulf of Mexico, is about 3.5 hours away in Corpus Christi, Texas.

For more info about our city, check out my page here.