"We are going to build a great nation, a successful, triumphant Mexico, which will measure up to our dreams," announced Mr Vicente Fox, Mexico's incoming President, speaking on the eve of today's historic inauguration.
Mr Fox's transition team compared the handover of power to the fall of the Berlin wall, as the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) leaves office after 71 years in power - longer than the Soviet Communist Party or Spain's General Franco.
Mexico's new President will turn up for today's ceremony wearing cowboy boots and jeans, watched by at least 40 heads of state. Ireland is represented by the Minister of State for the Environment, Mr Robert Molloy.
In another break with tradition, the new President will address 10,000 people in the National Stadium this afternoon, before moving on to the Zocalo, Mexico City's giant public square, where he will again address his followers.
The most important news about the handover of power is what is not happening: no currency collapse and no sudden rise in inflation, in sharp contrast to every previous transition for the past two decades.
Mr Fox has promised an end to corruption, plus millions of jobs, growth rates of 7 per cent per annum and peace in Chiapas, where conflict still simmers, all monumental tasks.
"The most significant challenge for Fox is to deal with the high expectations Mexicans have of him," said political analyst Mr Luis Rubio.
Mr Fox has a vision of change which would reduce the number of poor by six million in six years, through a combination of micro-credits and urban resettlement. "The government and all Mexican citizens have a challenge to establish a just and safe society. . . for women, the elderly, indigenous peoples, for every Mexican," Mr Fox says.
The recent precedents in Latin America do not augur well for him. From Argentina to Venezuela, dynamic new presidents have arrived in a blaze of reformist glory, only to collide with fractious parliaments, impatient unions and stringent IMF austerity measures.
Mr Fox's National Action Party (PAN) forms a minority in both legislative chambers, obliging him to negotiate changes with the opposition. His cabinet leans heavily on private business as the motor for economic reform, though he has also made centre-left appointments.