It’s been about 166 years since Californios marked today as Independence Day, but today the juggernaut of pyrotechnics, tri-coloured faces, epic spreads and booze, booze, and more booze has already started for six countries in the Americas (Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, 15th; México, 16th). Although México’s

Up here in the northernmost and wettest reaches of Alta California, la Independencia isn’t even a blip on the radar most years.  Which is why, on this, the Bicentennial of Mexico’s  Independence and Centennial of the Revolution, I had hoped to be in DF drinking cubas, eating chiles en nogada