Saturday, May 5 2012
Cinco de Mayo
In their finery!
Happy El Día de la Batalla de Puebla!
Typical of a gringo, I used to assume that Cinco de Mayo was either Mexican independence day, or a holiday invented by the makers of Corona beer. I got curious a few years ago and looked it up. The real idea behind the celebration is much more interesting. Wikipedia covers it nicely, but in a nutshell, the whole thing is fascinating. It is a celebration of the Mexican army over the French at the battle of Puebla, in 1862. The two significant points are the fact that the French were considered the finest fighting force of their time (French military prowess jokes aside) and the Mexicans crushed them like bugs.
The second factor was that the French were there to try and break up America: Napoleon III was supplying the Confederate rebels, hoping to fracture the American state and leave them vulnerable to French influence. The Mexicans broke them, and the North prevailed over the slavery states, and the US is what it is, partly through the efforts of Valiant Mexican soldiers.
Who knew?
Mexicans generally celebrate it as a family holiday, and I think that's a fine idea, and I'm going to raise a glass later today to freedom and democracy and the struggle against the oppressor.
| Posted by Tim 'Zaragoza' Vandergrift AT 6:57AM | 1 Comment |  |
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Comments
Adam
Posted 1 year ago
Small pedantic point - the Confederates were the rebels in the American Civil War, while the Union was the government they were rebelling against.
Otherwise, shoot yeah! Viva Cinco de Mayo!
Dangit, that's what you get for letting a Canadian talk about US history. Thanks for the correction, Adam.