Let’s take a look at the history of one of the most significant independent movements of Latin America: Mexico. So, how did it happen? Well, to understand that we have to remember how society during the colony worked. We had different levels of “class” depending on...

It’s September, the month of many celebrations in Latin America. Today for instance, we celebrate the independence of Central American countries: Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. How did this happen? How did they all separate at once? Well,...

Today we celebrate the National Day of Catalonia in Spain. You may wonder why there is a “national” day of a nation within Spain, but you may also recall from our Galicia blog, that this figure of national identity and autonomy is existent in Spain. 11th September is...

You must think this date commemorates separation from Spain, but actually it commemorates the day Uruguay separated from Brazil and became its own country. However, this doesn’t mean they didn’t have to rebel against Spain. They had a very long and complicated...

Today we commemorate the anniversary of the death of José de San Martín, an Argentine general. This is a public holiday in Argentina, but why? What made this person so important? If you recall our previous blogs, we talked about him in the independence articles. He...

Today we celebrate the Dominican Restoration Day. You may be wondering if this is the same as independence, and well, it is, but there’s a lot more to this story. First thing you should know is that the Dominican Republic and Haiti share the same island, Hispaniola....

If you have read our other blogs, you must believe that you know how this story goes and you’d be…kind of right, because the triggers and the processes are similar. However, there is one big difference in Peru’s independence movement, which is that it was fought from...

July 26th is the most important holiday in Cuba, as it commemorates the start of the Cuban revolution led by Fidel Castro in 1953. The revolution came after Fulgencio Batista took power for himself and did not allow the elections to continue. He also had friendly...

Today we celebrate the National Day of Galicia, and you may be wondering what that means. Isn’t Galicia part of Spain? Shouldn’t it be a regional holiday or National Day of Spain? Well, it is a national day because Galicia is an autonomous territory in Spain. The...

Simón Bolívar was born on July 24th 1783 in Venezuela and this is now the day his existence is celebrated. You may be wondering why, or perhaps you remember the blog about the Venezuelan independence… Simón Bolívar is known as “el libertador” and he was the most...

The official story goes that on the 20th July in 1810, there was a fight between criollos and Spanish royalists over a flower vase (el “Florero Llorente”), and that this issue later became the popular fight for independence, which ended almost a decade later. Such a...

You may think this article is about the independence of Nicaragua from Spain, but it’s not. This is about a revolution where the Nicaraguans fought to remove the ruling family from power in 1979. We’ll touch on the independence movement later. So, what happened? In...

Did you know Argentina used to be called “Provincias Unidas del Río de la Plata”? (Long name, I know), and before that, it was part of the Viceroyalty of Peru when the Spanish still ruled. By now you know how this story goes, because most independences in America are...

July is a month of revolutions, many countries in Latin America declared their independence during July. Such is the case for Venezuela, this beautiful country was first discovered by Christopher Columbus on his third voyage to America back in 1498 and other...

You are probably familiar with the 4th of July. This date marked the independence of the United States from the United Kingdom back in 1776. But did you know July 4th is also Puerto Rico’s Independence Day?  Well, not quite, but it is celebrated because Puerto Rico is...

You may or may not have heard of this war, partly because it was undeclared but it’s actually a sensitive topic to this day. These Islands are technically Argentinian territory, but they were seized by Britain back in 1833. So, Argentina decided to invade the islands...

You know what’s funny? Cinco de mayo is probably the best-known Mexican holiday in the world, and we don’t even celebrate it in Mexico. For those of you who don’t know, 5 de mayo is the yearly celebration of the battle Mexico won against France. Yes, that’s right, the...

Did you know that Spain was in a civil war right around the time World War II began? In fact, it was the biggest conflict Europe had experienced since the First World War. It started in 1936 when the “nationalists” led by Francisco Franco and Emilio Mola (names to...