A park with a view,
Spanish roots and Mexican history
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By Miguel Pérez
This is San Francisco's Mission Dolores Park, named after the nearby Mission San Francisco de Asis (also known as Mission Dolores) in the heart of the city's predominantly Hispanic Mission District. It's a park perched on a hill, where you can lie on the lawn and still get a spectacular view of the city skyline. Yet in spite of its connection to the Spanish Franciscan mission, the monuments here commemorate Mexico's independence from Spain – an obvious recognition of the city's huge Mexican-American population. |
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The park features a replica of Mexico's Freedom Bell and a statue of Miguel Hidalgo. It was Hidalgo who, on September 16 1810, "rang the bell of his church in the town of Dolores, in the now State of Guanajuato, calling the people to Mass and to bear arms against the Spanish yoke of 300 years," according to the plaque under the bell.
That original bell that launched Mexico's Grito de Independencia now stands above the central balcony of the National Palace in Mexico City. And in San Francisco, both Hidalgo and his bell stand as symbols of Mexican freedom. |
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