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| nachos and margaritas @ the HRC in Mandela Square |
All the Americans at the Hard Rock Cafe's Cinco de Mayo party thought
we knew what we were celebrating on May 5. We all assumed that Cinco de
Mayo was Mexico's equivalent to the USA's Independence Day on the 4th
of July. And unfortunately there weren't any of our fellow
Mexican-Americans there to correct us.
So when I got home, I did some research and found out that Mexico became independent
from Spain on
September 16th, 1810, almost half a century before the
events leading to the Cinco de Mayo holiday occurred! So then what's up with Cinco de Mayo?
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| Viva Frida! |
El Día de la Batalla de Puebla,
or The Day of the Battle of Puebla - or more commonly, Cinco De
Mayo, - recognizes an unlikely military
victory by the Mexican army. In 1862, during the French
invasion of Mexico, an ill-equipped 4,000 person Mexican army, greatly
outnumbered by the French, fought the Batalla de Puebla on the fifth of May -- and won!
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| greetings from Lou & Serge |
On May 9th of that same year,
Mexican President Juárez declared that May 5th become a national
holiday, commemorating the unexpected win. Soon after, the French took
control of Mexico City and remained in power until 1867. With the end of
the American Civil War, the United States could also assist Mexico in
the later part of the decade and help free them from European military
control. Cinco de Mayo has since
transformed into a Mexican-American holiday.
Part of
our annual month-long May Fest,
we always celebrated Cinco de Mayo in the USA by going out for nachos
and margaritas, wearing sombreros and channeling our inner Frida Kahlos
at a local Mexican restaurant so that's what we did here too. But now at
least I know what we're actually celebrating!
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