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What is Cinco de Mayo all about? Why is it such a big celebration?
It comes as a shock to most Americans to learn that Cinco de Mayo is not Mexican Independence Day, so we dive into what it is really all about.
Cinco de Mayo is not really a huge thing in Mexico. I know that may sound like sacrilege to many Mexican-Americans, or Latinos in general, but let me qualify that for you. I’ll bring it back, I promise.
The commemoration of the defeat of the French at the Battle of Puebla is widely popular in the US, but is not really a thing in Mexico itself, apart from in the region around Puebla itself. It is not even a national holiday, just a regional one. On the larger scale, Cinco de Mayo is associated with the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz, and understandably understated.
For the Mexican diaspora, however, things are different. For many, this date managed to tie together several holidays nicely. Slotting nicely into a gringo calendar that had no major holidays in early may and being so near the traditional workers’ holiday of May Day, Cinco de Mayo became the focus for these first, second, and third generation Americans to celebrate their own life journey.
In this guise, Cinco de Mayo celebrations gained popularity, particularly in California, during the Chicano Movement of the 1960s and 70s, a social movement advocating for the better treatment and civil rights of all Mexicans in America, led by the enigmatic Cesar Chavez.
Moulded through this mash of class, race, immigration, and circumstance, Cinco de Mayo would eventually become what it is today: a celebration, not so much of Mexico or even of what is a fairly obscure historical battle, but of Mexican culture within the United States. In brief, it is a celebration of the Mexican-American experience.
And that is a cause worthy of celebrating. Culture is like language. Once it has been given to you, no matter where it originally came from, then it is yours. Own it. The experiences of Mexican-Americans are all equally valid, and none are any more or less worthy than the wider Mexican national experience. So this Cinco de Mayo, raise a glass and toast Mexico, but be sure to toast your own personal history as well. After all, this holiday is for you.