Last Tuesday I tepidly celebrated Cinco de Mayo. A meet up group called Latin VIP invited a bunch of folks to a dance club with a largely African-American clientèle. The bar offered a drink special on Mexican beers, had a few balloons in the shape of cacti and hung up a couple of piñatas. The four-story place was packed on all four levels. This on a Tuesday night.
I enjoyed a few Tecates, but I can't say it felt particularly Hispanic.
Does anyone remember the band War, those 70s Latino rockers and their song Cinco De Mayo? I've never heard it. I kind of dig Liz Phair's song of the same name, Cinco de Mayo. I kinda wanted to hear either of those songs; they played some great salsa, but no one wanted to dance. Maybe its just me.
As Cinco de Mayos go, it was particularly uneventful.
As a young reporter, I once attended a Cinco de Mayo ceremony at the White House. The first George Bush, the senior, presided. I felt like a prop for a photo op. But that was kind of cool, the White House.
So why Cinco De Mayo?
Few know what it is:
Tuesday morning, I heard a dj from WAMU, the local NPR affiliate, call it “Mexican Independence Day.” Sorry, wrong. That's September 16th.
I think the funniest depiction of Cinco de Mayo I've ever seen was on a TV sit com – Girlfriends, a show about four African-American women and their trials and tribulations.
Joan, the leader of the band of girls, volunteered to a do a school play about the event. She dressed in a peasant costume, rode a fake horse and actually got some of the history right.
The day commemorates a successful battle in Mexico over the French on May 5th, 1862 in the Mexican state of Puebla. A rag tag group of Mexicans beat back the greatest military force at the time – an arm of Napoleon's army.
In Mexico, it is known as the Battle of Puebla.
Ok, so why Cinco de Mayo.
A lot of people have asked that question.
Here's one person who recently wrote into the Kansas City Star's “Diversity Diva.”
“Not to be funny, but I’m trying to figure out why people in America celebrate Cinco de Mayo. Is it even a holiday that has anything to do with our country? The company I work for has been having Cinco de Mayo activities for a few years. — Figuring Out Festivities “
So why should “figuring out festivities” celebrate Cinco de Mayo.
But what about other Latinos, ones who are not Mexican.
The AP ran a story this week quoting Latinos who complained the holiday favored Mexicans over all other Latinos.
A Salvadoran man in Seattle said: "Our kids go to this school system, and the school system is more preoccupied with Mexico's history, and not the rest of Latin America's, much less El Salvador's. They “the kids” came back celebrating Cinco De Mayo. That holiday means nothing to us."
Well in Mexico it's no big deal either.
In Mexico, Cinco de Mayo is not a federal holiday. It's celebrated only in the state where the battle took place – Puebla. But even there it's done with limited fanfare.
So why Cinco de Mayo.
It is a really just to market beer? Or give Anglo politicians a license to claim they recognize Hispanics. Or an exercise at schools on diversity?
Well no.
Historians have traced the 1st cinco de mayo celebrations in Los Angeles back to 1863, the year after the battle, at a time when California was firmly part of the United States.
As a reporter for the Austin American Statesman, I traced it back to a little town in south Texas called Goliad. The locals there believe they started cinco de Mayo. You see the general who led the battle of Puebla – Ignacio Zaragoza – was born there.
The Mexican-American community there - for all intents and purposes the community there – decided to celebrate a native son. They renamed the local social group from Sociadad Cuahtemoc, named after an Aztec general, to Sociedad Zaragoza, named after one of their own. From thence on, they celebrated Cinco de Mayo.
It became point of pride in this little south Texas town; a civic celebration of the local boy.
So I suggested by the title of speech that I'd give you five reasons to celebrate Cinco de Mayo; well I lied. There's only one; this is an American holiday.
Cinco de Mayo is as Mexican as Thanksgiving is English. Or St. Patrick's Day is Irish.
It's really about Americans who in the face of adversity took pride in their identity, but contributed to what is the United States.
So I give you one reason: Cinco de Mayo is an American holiday and its' about how all of us have become American, taking parts of our heritage and adding it to the fabric of the American experience.
Blessed few of us can claim heritage that traces to the native Americans from the United States. Each of us has ancestors who have taken their unique heritages and reshaped them into part of what it means to be part of the United States.
So with that, I say again, Cinco de Mayo is an American holiday.
AP story
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hczDUaNYq9WO0oxiheFVH6UaOH9AD980AVLO0Kansas City Star
Diversity Diva story
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinco_de_mayoWikipedia reference
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinco_de_mayo
