On Sunday, November 27, an estimated 1.2 million people inundated Mexico City to celebrate the four-year anniversary of the inauguration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO).

Along the city’s Paseo de la Reforma avenue, a festive march proceeded in seemingly unending waves. Drumming groups combined complicated rhythms with synchronized movements. Brigades of stilt-walkers swooped their capes and showed off their costumes. Musical groups, such as the Santa Rosa Philharmonic Band from the Mixe region of Oaxaca, regaled the public with melodies from across the country. There was traditional and spontaneous dance, calls and chants, university and union groups, and organized contingents by state.

Toward the front, the president marched without security, jostled among the push-and-pull of the crowd. At the end of the route, following a day of marching added to overnight bus rides for many, the festival poured into the bars and restaurants of the historic downtown like a politicized Oktoberfest. A sweaty and sunburnt AMLO, for his part, went on to give an hour-and-a-half speech outlining the achievements of his administration in terms of social programs, energy sovereignty, infrastructure, health policy, and more. Ever at the ready to coin a new phrase, he concluded by baptizing the philosophy undergirding his movement as “Mexican humanism.”