The truth is that Cinco de Mayo has been promoted by alcohol advertising into a major holiday like Mexican Independence Day but in Mexico Cinco de Mayo it is not a major holiday at all. It's mainly celebrated in the City of Puebla, where it commemorates the Mexican army's defeat of French invaders on May 5, 1862. ...Mexico Bob has the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth on this misunderstood holiday.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Ah yes, Cinco de Mayo
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ReplyDeleteHa! Who needs a drink? I just want the chips + guac!
ReplyDelete"Mexico Bob" is mostly right, but half my family has Mexican ancestry, and he said two things I'd quibble with: 1) Joseph Coors had his problems, but the Heritage Foundation is not "ultra conservative and far right." It's more mainstream than Mexico Bob wants to admit-- not in the same class as, for example, the John Birch Society.
ReplyDelete2) An error of omission-- interesting to wonder what might have happened if the French had been able to help the Confederate States of America, but while I accept most of the prevailing "Union = good; Confederacy = Bad" narrative, the situation was grayer than that (yes, there's a historical pun there). "Mexico Bob" didn't mention the "Batalion de San Patricio," for example. Many of those guys were Irish-American Union army veterans who got tired of being treated like second-class citizens by Presbyterians in the Union Army ranks. They formed a unit in a doomed effort to help the Mexicans whose Catholicism resonated with their own (you can look it up).
Cindy gives everyone who says "Happy Cinco de Mayo" a lecture on why Cinco de Mayo is not a happy day. I haven't heard it so I don't know.
ReplyDeleteIt is now your daughterly duty to find out and report back ... although if you read Mexico Bob's post that probably would give you a better context for talking to Cindy. :-)
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