Why do we celebrate Cinco de Mayo? The Tequila of course….
Holiday commemorates Mexico’s victory over France at Battle of Puebla — The Mexican holiday is still celebrated in Mexico, but the local tributes pale next to the giant celebration in the United States, complete with restaurant specials, high-volume advertising and endless promotion. Here are five things you should know about May 5.
1. It’s not Mexican Independence Day.
Cinco de Mayo celebrates the Mexican victory over France (of all countries) at the Battle of Puebla, May 5, 1862.
Mexico had been invaded by Spain, France and Great Britain in late 1861, but within six months Spain and Britain had pulled out. With the U.S. Civil War raging north of the Mexican border, the French decided to take advantage of the chaos and invade Mexico, which had been torn apart by war in the late 1850s.
The French made inroads in April 1862, but in May, at the town of Puebla — about 85 miles east of Mexico City — a small Mexican army under the command of Ignacio Zaragoza defeated a larger French contingent. It was a classic David-over-Goliath victory, and it’s been celebrated ever since for its symbolic value … even though the French did eventually take over Mexico and establish the short-lived Second Mexican Empire under the Emperor Maximilian.
Mexican Independence Day, incidentally, is celebrated September 16.
2. It’s got a Texas connection.
Zaragoza was born in what’s now Goliad, Texas, about 60 miles due north of Corpus Christi. In 1999, the Texas Senate declared it the official place to celebrate Cinco de Mayo.
And celebrate it does, with live music, ballet folklorico dancers and barbecue. There’s also a giant party at the Goliad Fairgrounds.
“It has opened the doors for Goliad. It is something that we are all very proud of. That’s one of the reasons we hope our youth will continue with the traditions,” former justice of the peace Emilio Vargas told the Victoria (Texas) Advocate in 2014.
3. It’s not just a big deal in the Southwest.
Among the best and most visited Cinco de Mayo festivals in the United States are held in Chicago (where the party in Douglas Park attracts 200,000), Denver (400,000 over two days), Portland, Oregon (the Waterfront Park festival attracts 300,000), and St. Paul, Minnesota.
St. Paul, Minnesota? Yes, indeed. The city includes a neighborhood known as the District del Sol, an area in the Minnesota capital’s west side that started attracting Mexican immigrants in the early 20th century. The Latino population now numbers more than 25,000 — close to 10% of the city, according to St. Paul Historical — and the Cinco de Mayo festival takes up two days.
4. Why so American?
Though Americans have been celebrating Cinco de Mayo practically since the battle ended — especially in the West — it was largely unknown in most parts of the U.S. until the 1960s, when Mexican-American activists started raising its profile. It’s become a way to celebrate pride in the community.
But, the United States being what it is, it’s also a great marketing opportunity. In 2014, Cinco de Mayo (or the nearest Friday, anyway) happened to be the biggest non-winter drinking day of the year, and it’s in the top five drinking holidays in general. Hey, you’ve got to have something to take the edge of the spicy food.
Maybe THIS new Sub Pop release will get you in the mood? (Art by our friend Pat Moriarity, recorded by our friend Jack Endino….)
ALSO – THIS DAY IN HISTORY:
1215 – Rebel barons renounce their allegiance to King John of England — part of a chain of events leading to the signing of the Magna Carta.
1260 – Kublai Khan becomes ruler of the Mongol Empire.
1430 – Jews are expelled from Speyer Germany
1494 – Christopher Columbus lands on the island of Jamaica and claims it for Spain.
1640 – King Charles I of England dissolves the Short Parliament.
1762 – Russia & Prussia sign Treaty of Saint Petersburg ending the Seven Years War
1780 – 2nd oldest learned society in US (American Academy of Arts & Sciences) forms (Boston)
1809 – Mary Kies becomes the first woman awarded a U.S. patent, for a technique of weaving straw with silk and thread.
1818 – Karl Marx, Trier, Prussia, philosopher (Communist Manifesto, Das Kapital), (d. 1883) Born
1821 – Emperor Napoleon I dies in exile on the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean.
1883 – Charles Bender, only American Indian in baseball’s Hall of Fame, Born
1862 – Cinco de Mayo: Troops led by Ignacio Zaragoza halt a French invasion in the Battle of Puebla in Mexico.
1864 – American Civil War: The Battle of the Wilderness begins in Spotsylvania County.
1865 – In North Bend, Ohio (a suburb of Cincinnati), the first train robbery in the United States takes place.
1866 – Memorial Day first celebrated in United States at Waterloo, New York.
1877 – American Indian Wars: Sitting Bull leads his band of Lakota into Canada to avoid harassment by the United States Army under Colonel Nelson Miles.
1881 – Anit-Jewish rioting in Kiev Ukraine
1886 – The Bay View Tragedy occurs, as “militia” fire upon a crowd of protesters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin killing seven.
1891 – The Music Hall in New York City (later known as Carnegie Hall) has its grand opening and first public performance, with Tchaikovsky as the guest conductor.
1905 – The trial in the Stratton Brothers case begins in London, England; it marks the first time that fingerprint evidence is used to gain a conviction for murder.
1912 – Soviet Communist Party newspaper Pravda begins publishing (4/22 OS)
1920 – US Pres Wilson makes Communist Labor Party illegal
1921 – Alfred H Fried, Austrian/German pacifist (Nobel 1911), dies
1925 – Scopes Trial: Serving of an arrest warrant on John T. Scopes for teaching evolution in violation of the Butler Act.
1925 – The government of South Africa declares Afrikaans an official language.
1926 – Sinclair Lewis refuses his Pulitzer Prize for “Arrowsmith”
1934 – The first Three Stooges short, Woman Haters, is released.
1939 – Ray Gosling, English journalist, author, and activist (d. 2013) was born.
1940 – World War II: Norwegian refugees form a government-in-exile in London
1940 – World War II: Norwegian Campaign: Norwegian squads in Hegra Fortress and Vinjesvingen capitulate to German forces after all other Norwegian forces in southern Norway had laid down their arms.
1942 – Tammy Wynette [Virginia Pugh], Redbay Alabama, country singer (Stand by your Man), (d. 1998) Born
1943 – Michael Palin, Sheffield England, comedian (Monty Python, Fish Called Wanda) Born
1944 – Gandhi freed from prison
1945 – World War II: Canadian and British troops liberate the Netherlands and Denmark from German occupation when Wehrmacht troops capitulate.
1945 – World War II: The Prague uprising begins as an attempt by the Czech resistance to free the city from German occupation.
1945 – Kurt Loder, Entertainment reporter MTV, Born
1945 – World War II: Admiral Karl Dönitz, leader of Germany after Hitler’s death, orders all U-boats to cease offensive operations and return to their bases.
1946 – The International Military Tribunal for the Far East begins in Tokyo with twenty-eight Japanese military and government officials accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
1948 – Bill Ward, English drummer and songwriter (Black Sabbath and Mythology) Born in Birmingham, England
1949 – The Treaty of London establishes the Council of Europe in Strasbourg as the first European institution working for European integration.
1954 – Angelo Kimball, rock guitarist (Face To Face), born in Boston, Massachusetts
1955 – West Germany granted full “sovereignty” by 3 occupying powers
1959 – Ian McCullough, rock vocalist (Echo & Bunnymen-Heaven Up Here) Born
1961 – Alan Shepard becomes 1st American in space (aboard Freedom 7)
1964 – Separatists riot in Quebec
1965 – 1st large-scale US Army ground units arrive in South Vietnam
1966 – Shawn Drover, Canadian drummer (Megadeth and Eidolon) was born
1969 – Pulitzer prize awarded to Norman Mailer (Armies of the Night)
1971 – Race riot in Brownsville section of Brooklyn (NYC)
1973 – Secretariat wins the 1973 Kentucky Derby in 1:59 2/5, a still standing record.
1977 – The first of The Nixon Interviews between David Frost and Richard Nixon are broadcast.
1979 – Voyager 1 passes Jupiter
1980 – Operation Nimrod: The British Special Air Service storms the Iranian embassy in London after a six-day siege.
1981 – Bobby Sands, IRA activist/Freedom Fighter, dies in the 66th day of his hunger strike aged 26
1984 – Wade MacNeil, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist (Alexisonfire, Gallows, and Black Lungs) was born.
1987 – Iran–Contra affair: Start of Congressional televised hearings in the United States of America
1988 – Eugene A Marino installed as 1st African American archbishop
1991 – A riot breaks out in the Mt. Pleasant section of Washington, D.C. after police shoot a Salvadoran man.
1994 – American teenager Michael P. Fay is caned in Singapore for theft and vandalism.
2000 – Conjunction of Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn & Moon
2007 – Theodore Maiman, American physicist, created the laser (b. 1927) died.
2010 – Mass protests in Greece erupt in response to austerity measures imposed by the government as a result of the Greek debt crisis.
2011 – Claude Choules, last surviving World War I veteran (b. 1901) Dies
2012 – 17 people are killed and 47 missing after a flash flood in Nepal
2012 – Japan shuts down its nuclear reactors leaving the country without nuclear power for the first time since 1970
2013 – 10 people are killed in a church attack in Njilan, Nigeria
2013 – 5 people are killed after a limousine catches fire in Hayward, California
2014 – China announces it will upgrade Ethiopia’s infrastructure in an effort to improve a China-Africa strategic partnership