What in the hell is Cinco de Mayo?
by monicasjungle
What in the hell is Cinco de Mayo?
So I think it’s kinda funny that America celebrates Cinco de Mayo, because Mexico doesn’t. To them, there is no holiday, no cause for celebration, no parties, no fiestas, no big deal. It’s just another day.
[In fact, there is a different holiday that falls on May 1st, which is called “May Day” (similar to labor day). Banks were closed, and at my fancy hotel job, I got paid extra holiday pay.]
Now, I’m not going to criticize America for celebrating a non-existant Mexican holiday. Instead, I’m going to try a different approach. I’m going to say instead that it’s cool that we have an American holiday, that celebrates American culture. The fact is, there are a shitload of Mexicans in the US, and by celebrating Cinco de Mayo, we’re recognizing that. We’re a multi-cultural country, and our holidays relfect that.
Just don’t get it twisted and think its a Mexican thing, because its not. Cinco de Mayo is 100% American.
(Cue the music)
Monica's Jungle 
You’re going to end up hating me for all these blog comments, I’m sorry. Cinco de mayo IS a big deal in Puebla, which is where the batalla de Cinco de mayo was fought. I’ve been to the fort, etc. and it’s a major deal there. It’s considered to be the turning point in the war against the French.
And (I’ve researched this since I always wonder why we celebrate it and the rest of Mexico doesn’t) it seems that some historians consider it to also be a major cause of the north’s victory in our own Civil War. Because the Mexicans were able to hold off the French, 1) we had more time to finish our own business before heading south to help oust those damned frogs, and 2) the frogs couldn’t head north and attack us.
Besides that, it was a campaign to sell more Dos Equis, which makes much more sense.
On another note, May Day is a worldwide holiday, we don’t celebrate it because someone at some point in time designated it a ‘socialist holiday.’ It’s International Worker’s Day. They used to celebrate it here too, there’s poetry about it and everything. I always wondered what it was when I was a kid because in one of my favorite books they had a May pole and a May queen and the works. That book was written around the turn of the century, though.
Oops. It’s the Batalla de Puebla. Not Cinco de mayo.
Overall, though, Cinco de Mayo is celebrated much more widely in the US than in Mexico. It just kinda sucks how Americans think that Cinco de Mayo is a bigger deal than Mexico’s Independence Day, which is September 16th.
Thanks for the history lesson though, TH, I’ve got to start researching my shit before I run off at the mouth, huh?!
You’ll also find that more and more Mexican towns are starting to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. When Lerdo, Durango celebrates and kids get out of school, you know the disease is spreading.