A replica of El Angel de Independencia. Mexican charros riding dancing horses. Traditional ballet folklórico dancers. And, of course, banda, cumbia and Nortena bands.
Expect to see them all on Saturday at Elgin and Carpentersville celebrations of Mexican Independence Day.
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An annual holiday on Sept. 16 in Mexico, the event commemorates the country’s success in winning its freedom from Spanish rule. U.S. celebrations feature the same elements as its Mexican counterparts, featuring El Grito de Dolores, which is the traditional cry for independence, parades, festivals, dances and music.
Elgin’s celebration begins with an annual car parade at 11 a.m., starting at Slade and Douglas avenues and ending at Douglas and Highland avenues, but the Fiesta de Elgin itself — the centerpiece of which is replica of El Angel de Independencia, a symbol of war’s victory — doesn’t start until 4:30 p.m. at downtown Festival Park.
This year, the city commissioned a base for the statue, which will be on display at the park in addition to an Elgin-themed paper picado, which will decorate the park and South Grove Avenue.
Eighteen food vendors will be onsite, said Amanda Harris, Elgin’s director of cultural arts and special events, but the big draw will be the music.
Live performances by La Original Banda El Limon, Los K Bros, and Sonora Tropicana are planned and DJ Eddy-P will emcee between sets. Mariachi Sirenas, an all-female band, will also perform.
Last year, 10,000 to 12,000 people attended, Harris said.
“The city expects at least 12,000 attendees this year as La Fiesta continues to grow in popularity,” she said.
Carpentersville’s El Grito celebration starts with a parade, which steps off at 11 a.m. at L.W. Besinger Drive and travels west on Maple Avenue to Carpenter Boulevard. The festival begins at 1 p.m. at Carpenter Park.
For the parade, organizer Jose Corral said he has 20 dancing horses participating along with a live band, floats, traditional Mexican dancers and local organizations joining the procession.
“I think it’s going to be a beautiful event,” Corral said.
Horses and their handlers, known as charros, or traditional Mexican cowboys, are cultural icons of Mexico’s freedom and national identity, according to historyguild.org/the-mexican-war-of-independence. Horses were important to the war and a symbol of its defiance against Spanish colonial rule, it said.
“Historically, the Spanish crown strictly prohibited indigenous and mestizo populations from owning or riding horses, keeping them as exclusive symbols of the ruling elite,” the site stated. When the prohibition ended, so too did the colonial caste system.
Corral started Carpentersville’s El Grito event in 2018 before the village of Carpentersville stepped in to organize it for three years. After the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to its temporary cancellation, Carpentersville renamed it Fiestapalooza.
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El Grito returned in 2025. Corral is the main organizer this year and estimates the free event could draw about 2,000 people this year.
Vendors like No Manches Mexican Grill, which was recently at Chicago’s Lollapalooza, will be selling Mexican antojitos and other traditional Mexican street foods and snacks, he said. There will be seven live bands offering a range of music from Mexico’s diverse regions and a mix of cumbias, banda and Spanish rock.
“People from Michoacán listen to different music than people from Durango, in the north,” he said. “People from Mexico also listen to different music. … I have to make sure everybody is going to get something they like.”
There also will be contests and prizes for those who do the best “El Grito” war cry.
“It’s one of the things people like about this event; it’s very family-oriented,” he said.
Because they’re working with a small budget, Corral said Carpentersville’s El Grito is more of a grassroots celebration, but that “makes it more special because it comes from the heart.”
Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The (Elgin) Courier-News.