Both faithful readers know that the month of May is usually busy around here…. yesterday was “may the 4th be with you” or Star Wars Day and today is Cinco de Mayo — the holiday that celebrates the date of the Mexican Army’s May 5, 1862 victory over France at the Battle of Puebla during the Franco-Mexican War.
The Mexican Army that won the battle was largely outnumbered and poorly supplied. In fact, they were known as a rag-tag army and only had outdated guns at their disposal. But as few as 2,000 Mexican soldiers, some of whom hid behind tall cactus plants, defeated 6.000 French soldiers during the battle, that lasted from daybreak to early evening.
Ignacio Zaragoza was the Mexican general that led the army that defeated the French. He was born in what’s now Goliad in southern Texas and was only 33 years old when he led his troops to victory. Puebla was renamed Puebla de Zaragoza in his honor.
Although it was celebrated in the United States just weeks after the Battle of Puebla, Cinco de Mayo wasn’t officially recognized here until 1933. President Franklin D. Roosevelt enacted something called the “Good Neighbor Policy,” which was meant to improve relations with Latin American countries and communities. After Cinco de Mayo was officially recognized, it really began to pick up steam in the 1950s and 60s. I guess drinking seemed like a good way to improve international relations to FDR — sounds like a good idea to me.
The town of Chandler, Arizona has a typical Cinco de Mayo celebration — food, music, parades, dancing and Chihuahua races. Townspeople enter their Chihuahuas into the race and receive a large cash prize if their Chihuahua is the fastest.
Cinco de Mayo is not a federal holiday in Mexico, but it’s always been popular with the kids — even before the pandemic, schools were closed for the day.
So happy Cinco de Mayo — no matter how you celebrate and even if you don’t take in the Chihuahua races, you can’t go wrong with a Margarita.
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