On Monday, February 6, Mexico marks Constitution Day, a national holiday throughout the country.
Most private businesses, banks, schools, government offices and diplomatic missions will close for the day, as will the majority of stores. Supermarkets will remain open. The Guadalajara metro area’s car-free Via RecreActiva will be extended from Sunday to include this Monday holiday. Bikers, walkers, joggers and skateboarders can make use of the traffic-free routes from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Constitution Day marks the day Mexico’s Magna Carta was signed into existence in 1917 at the end of the Mexican Revolution. The armed struggle that began as a movement to overthrow dictator Porfirio Diaz in 1910 had evolved into a bloody civil war seven years later.
In February 1917, Venustiano Carranza, the chief of the Constitutional Army, called on Congress to change the 1857 Constitution. The original document was modified drastically to reflect the new reality of the country. It included reforms to support the rights of workers and farmers and granted freedom of religion. And it stated that government should be blind to race, belief and social status. Moves to modify the Constitution since 1917 have always been met with fierce resistance by politicians.
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