feliz cumpleaños, señor constitución

Deduction is often a sloppy tool. But it did not fail me today.

The circumstantial evidence was right there. The streets of our little villages by the sea were alive with Mexican-plated SUVs and late-model sedans. Parking spaces were non-existent. Most tellingly, a restaurant that caters to gringo-style breakfasts was filled with Mexican families. Not a northern tourist could be seen.

Something was up. And my first guess was correct. It had to be a three-day Mexican holiday. And I knew which one it was.

For all of its civic holidays and religious fiestas, Mexico has only seven federal statutory holidays (eight in a presidential election year). This was one of them.

It is Día de la Constitución -- Constitution Day. The day Mexicans celebrate the Constitution of 1917. Until 2006, It was celebrated on the anniversary of the day the Constitutional Convention approved the Constitution on 5 February 1917. Since 2006, the day is celebrated on the first Monday of February -- guaranteeing workers a paid holiday.

The Constitution of 1917 was the political document that enshrined the political and social accomplishments of the Mexican Revolution, and was the first national constitution that stated the positive rights that the government must provide its citizens rather than negative rights protecting the citizens from the actions of the government.

The revolution itself was the most important event in Mexico's history. It finally answered the question what type of country Mexico was and what being a Mexican meant. The 1917 Constitution provided some answers.

The big losers were the Mexican Catholic Church that lost almost all of its power and property that had not yet been seized by the government during President Juarez's reforms, the owners of large estates who saw the land taken for land reform -- or to enhance the wealth of revolutionary generals, and the foreigners (British, Canadians, and Americans, primarily) who owned most of Mexico's mines and infrastructure.

The Constitution discarded the earlier concept espoused by liberals like President Benito Juarez that government should take only a limited, passive role. The new national government now had an obligation to take the lead in promoting the social, economic, and cultural well-being of its citizens.

This is just a partial list of the Constitution's provisions.

• Provided that "National benefit" would be a limitation on private contracts and property
• Established a system of free, mandatory, and secular education, thus restricting another traditional role performed by the Catholic church
• Set up the foundations for land reform through the ejido system
• Declared all mineral resources in the subsoil belonged to the state
• Provided for liberal labor rights -- minimum wages, right to strike, and join a union
• Placed ownership of all property in the hands of the state and restricted foreign ownership of property near borders or on the coast ("Private property is a privilege created by the nation")
• Increased the restrictions on the Catholic church beyond those of Juarez's constitution -- including the seizure of church buildings
• Empowered the government to expropriate property -- from the hacienda owners, and particularly property owned by foreigners
• Prohibited the reelection of any official -- especially, the president
• Guaranteed the right of persons to own firearms in their home
• Established social security, public health, and welfare systems 

The Constitution was so admired by both the Weimar Republic and revolutionary Russia that both nations used the Mexican Constitution of 1917 as a model for their own.

The Constitution has been amended almost 150 times since it was enacted -- one of the most recent removed the prohibition of officials to seek reelection. The only elected official in Mexico who cannot seek reelection is the president. That makes sense because presidential reelections were one of the triggering events of the revolution.

Because this is a Mexican holiday, it will be accompanied by fireworks. Last year, someone wrote on Facebook that the fireworks were the usual religious blasts. His theory was that the Catholic Church was celebrating the constitution. It was not.

I found the assertion more than a bit ironic. One of the primary goals of the Constitution was to strip the Church of what property and authority it had retained following President Juarez's reforms. 

A subsequent president, Plutarco Calles (the same guy who ordered Pancho Villa's assassination) would so stringently impose anti-clerical laws under the auspices of the Constitution that some Mexican Catholics rose in rebellion. That was known as the Cristero War -- a rebellion that had strong support in our home state of Jalisco.

So, that is why our little beach villages have been filled with Mexican tourists this weekend. Most are celebrating this major step in the development of the Mexican state just as Americans celebrate the Fourth of July or Canadians celebrate Canada Day -- by lugging the family to the beach for good food and a lot of sand.

Feliz cumpleaños, señor Constitución.