Peninsula Daily News
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Today is El Cinco de Mayo, a regional holiday in Mexico but a nationwide observance in the United States — mainly as an excuse to drink tequila and Mexican beer and eat burritos, crispy fold-over tacos and other American-style “Mexican” food.
Cinco de Mayo is a lot like St. Patrick’s Day, which is an excuse to eat and drink Irish-style. El Cinco has been heavily promoted by U.S. liquor companies and distributors since the 1960s to boost springtime sales in advance of more solemn — and less party-hearty — observances as Mother’s Day, Armed Services Day and Memorial Day.
And although Cinco de Mayo translates to “Fifth of May,” it’s not equal to our Fourth of July. Meaning: It’s not Mexico’s independence day, contrary to a lot of American belief and advertising hype.
In fact, El Cinco de Mayo isn’t even a holiday nationwide in Mexico, but rather a regional holiday in and around the city and state of Puebla. That’s where a greatly overwhelmed Mexican army fought back invading Napoleonic French invaders in 1862.
The short story: Napoleon III invaded Mexico to collect money he said was owed France. Historians say Napoleon really wanted to take over his enemy, the United States, and saw an opportunity to invade the U.S. from the south. President Abraham Lincoln and his military were busy with the Civil War.
The Battle of Puebla lasted two hours. The Mexican army, led by Gen. Ignacio Zaragoza, was 4,000 strong. The troops wielded machetes and ingenuity to defeat Napoleon’s better-equipped force of 8,000 soldiers, so the story goes.
To that defeat — and the possibility of a French invasion of the United States thwarted — you can lift a salt-rimmed margarita today to El Cinco de Mayo.
For the record: Mexico’s independence day falls on Sept. 16, when that nation pays homage to Miguel Hidalgo y Castilla, a Catholic priest who tolled his church bell in 1810 to proclaim the country’s freedom from Spain.
