September 15, 1821

Early on the morning of Saturday, September 15, 1821, a group of important men began to arrive at the Royal Palace, the seat of the Spanish government in Guatemala City. They had come to answer one question. Should Central America stay under Spanish rule, or should it become independent? The meeting had been called by Gabino Gaínza, the Spanish official who governed the region.

The city itself was fairly new. The capital had been moved here from Antigua less than fifty years earlier, after a series of terrible earthquakes. Now news was arriving from Chiapas, to the north. Several towns there had already broken with Spain, and the leaders in Guatemala knew they could not wait much longer.

Inside the hall, the room was divided. Some officials, including the archbishop, wanted to stay loyal to the king. Others believed that independence was the only way forward. Meanwhile, outside the hall, a crowd was growing in the square and in the corridors of the palace. Among the people outside was María Dolores Bedoya. She is remembered today for encouraging ordinary people to gather there and support independence. Their shouts could be heard inside the hall.

In the end, the supporters of independence won. The text of the act was written mainly by José Cecilio del Valle, a lawyer from Honduras. Its first point says that independence was the wish of the people. It also says that the authorities should announce it themselves, to prevent the terrible consequences that could follow if the people proclaimed it first. In other words, the leaders were worried that the crowd at the door might act before them. Gaínza was kept as head of the government, and the act was signed before the day was over.

Independence was not complete that day. A congress was planned to make the final decisions. A few months later, in 1822, the region was annexed to the Mexican Empire for a short time. The palace itself was destroyed by the earthquakes of 1917 and 1918. Its site is now part of the Parque Centenario, in the center of the city.

In 1821, the news of independence traveled slowly from the capital to the other provinces, on horseback and by letter. Today it travels again every year, but on foot. On September 14, thousands of students light torches and run with them through the streets and along the highways. They pass the flame from runner to runner until it reaches their own towns. More than two hundred years have passed since the men in the palace put their names on a piece of paper, and the news is still being carried.