You’re Probably Celebrating Cinco De Mayo All Wrong
You all know I’m mexican and all of this bullshit really gets on my nerves, so here, have a little remainder
Si supieran que aquí en México no se celebrará esa madre xD
Exacto.
Practically no one cares about cinco de mayo here in Mexico tbh so I don’t care all that much about Americans choosing to use this day as an excuse to get drunk.
Of course it’s irritating to see MAGA dumbasses in tacky sombreros and fake moustaches but that’s annoying all year long no matter what day it is. Let’s not pretend cinco de mayo is a huge deal to Mexican culture when it’s not, lol.
For those interested, here is the history of Cinco de Mayo and how it relation to the U.S.
In 1821 after a battle for their independence from Spain, Mexico broke free and descended into years of internal political takeovers and wars including the Mexican Civil War and the Mexican-American War. After years of war and struggle, as Mexico attempted to find its footing since being annexed from Spain, debts began to accumulate, sharply. By this point, Mexico was heavily indebted to Spain, England, and France. All three countries wanted their money back and sent naval forces to Veracruz to demand repayment. Spain and England were able to negotiate with Mexico upon learning of France’s true intents and peacefully withdrew their forces. France, however, under the rule of Napoleon III wanted to expand their empire and saw this as the perfect opportunity to do so. Napoleon III saw the conquest of Mexico as a step not only towards expanding his empire but also towards establishing a link to the United States where he planned to support the Confederate army in an attempt to keep the U.S. split into two less powerful entities.
What’s the U.S got to do with it?
While all this was going on in Mexico, close by in the U.S. the Civil War had begun and it looked like the Confederacy would win. Only a year into the war and the Confederacy had already expanded into New Mexico and Arizona headed for California, or more specifically Los Angeles. As the war raged on, Latinos in the western states grew more and more concerned that slavery was coming for them. In response, large populations of Latinos in California enrolled in the U.S. Army, organizing cavalry in California and New Mexico.
In both the U.S. and in Mexico, wars were being waged and Latinos in the U.S. felt both wars acutely. Their home country of Mexico had overturned slavery 50 years earlier and was running under a democratic government that was now being threatened by France. As LA Times writer, David E. Hayes-Bautista put it, “Cinco de Mayo was made in America, by Latinos who proudly bore the U.S. and Mexican flags to show their support for both the Union and its values and for the Mexican victory over the French, who sought to undermine those values.”
The battle at Puebla was a significant victory not only for the underdog Mexican army and their fight for independence but also because it closed off a major access point to the U.S. that Napoleon had hoped to take advantage of in order to further his support for the Confederacy during the U.S. Civil War.
One final reason why Cinco de Mayo is celebrated with such veracity in the U.S. is the “Good Neighbor Policy” which President Franklin Roosevelt enacted in 1933 in his first inaugural address to encourage and improve relations with Latin American countries. Cinco de Mayo became a popular celebration of Mexican heritage and picked up steam in the United States during this period.
