Le jour de gloire est arrivé !

Happy Bastille Day… when the French celebrate liberty, equality and fraternity… also running amok, prison breaks and wholesale head chopping.

And if you think the Himno Nacional is blood-soaked (Mexicans, at the cry of war,/ prepare the steel and the steed,/ and may the earth shake at its core/ to the cannons resounding roar!), it’s got nothing on Le Marsellaise:

Let’s go children of the fatherland,
The day of glory has arrived!
Against us tyranny’s
Bloody flag is raised! (repeat)
In the countryside, do you hear
The roaring of these fierce soldiers?
They come right to our arms
To slit the throats of our sons, our friends!

Refrain

Grab your weapons, citizens!
Form your batallions!
Let us march! Let us march!
May impure blood
Water our fields!

Of course, when tyranny’s bloody flag IS raised, you gotta stand up and make some noise.

AND A BASTILLE DAY TRIVIA QUESTION:

Besides Mexican diplomat Gilberto Bosques, who in real life arranged for European refugees to flee the Nazis via Casablanca, another Latin American political figure has an important connection to the  film “Casablanca”.  Who was he, and what’s his connection?  Answer tomorrow.