Cinco de Mayo
May. 5th, 2021 05:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerToday, May 5, is Cinco de Mayo... or as I sometimes call it, Drink-Margaritas-For-No-Good-Reason-That-Anyone-Can-Name Day. Commonly mistaken for Mexico's independence day— which is actually September 16— today marks the Battle of Puebla on 5 May 1862. On that day the Mexican army won a battle against French invaders in the small town of Puebla. Although it boosted Mexicans' morale it was a militarily insignificant victory. Among other reasons, the French came back with a lot more troops and stomped the Mexicans and installed Maximilian as emperor. D'oh!
Cinco de Mayo has become a major holiday in the US as a celebration of Mexican-American heritage, spurred on by beer and liquor and snack companies looking for anything to encourage us to buy more beer, liquor, and snacks. The funny thing is it's basically a non-event in Mexico. It's not one of the country's official holidays, and outside the actual village of Puebla and a few nearby towns, Mexicans don't have parades or festivals or parties to celebrate the day. It's Mexican St. Patrick's Day... and BTW you should see my latest thoughts on that crassly commercialized holiday.
"But there are some Mexican citizens/descendants who've always celebrated Cinco de Mayo," people admonish me, arguing that it can't possibly be a Hallmark holiday wrested from obscurity by beer companies in the 1990s. Sure, as I explained above, there are a few people/localities that celebrated it all the way through the 20th century. But again, it's not a thing in Mexico. It's just here in the US we've turned it into a party where we don garish straw hats and noisily hoist margaritas.
What day is USA Day? What day would you pick? Maybe July 4, US Independence Day. It's the biggest single-day, non-religious holiday in the US, and it has obvious historical, cultural, and political significance. Or maybe Thanksgiving, a US holiday that while light on political significance is long on historical and cultural narrative. But no, the US subculture you meet celebrates USA Day on April 13.
"April 13?" you ask. "What the heck is on April 13?"
"Thomas Jefferson's birthday," your hosts answer condescendingly as they don powdered wigs and tri-corner hats heavily advertised every April by the biggest clothing manufacturers in the host country. "Do you not know this? How could you not recognize the author of the Declaration of Independence and US Constitution and the 3rd President? C'mon, it's been recognized by multiple US presidents and has been celebrated in parts of the United States for over 200 years!"
Does that USA Day sound stupid to you?
Does it sounds like it has more to do with selling wigs and hats than connecting with actual US culture?
Yeah, that's how Cinco de Mayo sounds to me.
Cinco de Mayo has become a major holiday in the US as a celebration of Mexican-American heritage, spurred on by beer and liquor and snack companies looking for anything to encourage us to buy more beer, liquor, and snacks. The funny thing is it's basically a non-event in Mexico. It's not one of the country's official holidays, and outside the actual village of Puebla and a few nearby towns, Mexicans don't have parades or festivals or parties to celebrate the day. It's Mexican St. Patrick's Day... and BTW you should see my latest thoughts on that crassly commercialized holiday.
"But there are some Mexican citizens/descendants who've always celebrated Cinco de Mayo," people admonish me, arguing that it can't possibly be a Hallmark holiday wrested from obscurity by beer companies in the 1990s. Sure, as I explained above, there are a few people/localities that celebrated it all the way through the 20th century. But again, it's not a thing in Mexico. It's just here in the US we've turned it into a party where we don garish straw hats and noisily hoist margaritas.
Thought Experiment: April 13
Look at it this way from an US perspective.... Suppose you're an American, and you move to another country. You'd like to celebrate your heritage. You're excited to meet a few US ex-pats and descendants. They love their heritage, too, and they've even got a special holiday for it, "USA Day".What day is USA Day? What day would you pick? Maybe July 4, US Independence Day. It's the biggest single-day, non-religious holiday in the US, and it has obvious historical, cultural, and political significance. Or maybe Thanksgiving, a US holiday that while light on political significance is long on historical and cultural narrative. But no, the US subculture you meet celebrates USA Day on April 13.
"April 13?" you ask. "What the heck is on April 13?"
"Thomas Jefferson's birthday," your hosts answer condescendingly as they don powdered wigs and tri-corner hats heavily advertised every April by the biggest clothing manufacturers in the host country. "Do you not know this? How could you not recognize the author of the Declaration of Independence and US Constitution and the 3rd President? C'mon, it's been recognized by multiple US presidents and has been celebrated in parts of the United States for over 200 years!"
Does that USA Day sound stupid to you?
Does it sounds like it has more to do with selling wigs and hats than connecting with actual US culture?
Yeah, that's how Cinco de Mayo sounds to me.
