President Claudia Sheinbaum on Wednesday led Mexico’s civic-military parade marking Revolution Day on the 114th anniversary of the beginning of the Mexican Revolution.

In addition to being Mexico’s first female president, Sheinbaum is the first woman to serve as supreme commander of the Mexican armed forces and thus became the first woman to lead the annual Mexican Revolution Day parade.

The parade began in Mexico City’s central square, the Zócalo, and concluded at the Campo Marte military complex west of the historic center.

At its commencement, Sheinbaum traveled around the Zócalo in a military vehicle to inspect the troops who participated in the parade. The president, who stood in the vehicle, was flanked by the chiefs of the Mexican Army and Navy.

Some 2,600 military personnel took part in the parade, including men and women dressed in attire used by the revolutionary soldiers who participated in the 1910-20 revolution. In its early stages, the revolution succeeded in ousting Porfirio Díaz, who ruled Mexico as a virtual dictator for over 30 years in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Horses — some of which took a tumble on the slick surface of the Zócalo — and children dressed in period costumes also participated in the parade. Military aircraft flew overhead.

At the end of the parade, a girl and a boy handed a floral arrangement to Sheinbaum, telling the president that it symbolized “hope for a better Mexico in your hands.”

In a Revolution Day speech, Sheinbaum said that Mexico is an “extraordinary” nation and offered an overview of its history, focusing on “the first transformation: the independence of Mexico,” the “second transformation”: 19th liberal reforms and “the third transformation”: the Mexican Revolution.

The president noted that Francisco I. Madero, Porfirio Díaz’s opponent in the 1910 presidential election, called for Mexicans to take up arms against Díaz’s regime on Nov. 20, 1910.

Later in her address, Sheinbaum declared that the “fourth transformation” of Mexico began when former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador took office in 2018.

“Today we’re living the second story of the fourth transformation. It’s based on the consolidation of justice, of democracy and of freedoms in order to achieve full happiness for our people,” she said.

“… We’re going through a profound transformation and believe me — the whole world looks at Mexico with admiration,” Sheinbaum said.

“… One hundred and fourteen years after the start of the Mexican Revolution we affirm that we are a free, sovereign, independent, caring, generous and democratic country and we don’t forget where we came from,” she said.

“That’s why we commemorate the Mexican Revolution. … Long live Mexicans! Long live the hardworking and brave people of Mexico! ¡Qué viva México!”

With reports from Excélsior, Reforma and La Jornada