Cinco de Mayo BY ALLYSON JONES
Many believe Cinco de Mayo (Spanish for “Fifth of May”) celebrates Mexican Independence Day. However, the holiday originated in 1862 – more than 50 years after Mexico declared independence from Spain – when a small Mexican army defeated elite French forces during the First Battle of Puebla. In 1861, while the United States was engaged in the Civil War, Mexico was bankrupt and trying to recover from its own Reform War, according to History.com. The country defaulted on loans to several European governments, and although Britain and Spain were eventually willing to negotiate, Emperor Napoleon III, nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, saw an opportunity to create an empire in Mexico which could also provide guns to the Confederacy in exchange for scarce Southern cotton. A large French fleet stormed the port city of Veracruz later that year and pushed the newly elected President Benito Juarez and his government out of Mexico City. The First Battle of Puebla was largely a symbolic victory and Mexico lost the Second Battle of Puebla, as well as the war with France. Austrian Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian von Habsburg was installed as the Emperor of Mexico in 1864 and France occupied the country until 1867 when Prussia threatened to reclaim Alsace and Lorraine and Napoleon had to refocus military efforts and funding. At the same time, the United States under President Abraham Lincoln exerted diplomatic pressure 52
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on the French while providing military support in the form of weapons to Juarez. After the French left the country – and Ferdinand Maximilian was captured and executed – the first Battle of Puebla became a symbol of Mexico’s resistance to foreign domination. Historically, Cinco de Mayo celebrations in Mexico are limited to the state of Puebla and feature military parades, speeches and battle reenactments. In 2012, according to Insider.com, the International Mole Festival was incorporated into the event to honor Mole Polbano, a dish which originated in Puebla. In the History.com article “How Cinco de Mayo Helped Prevent a Confederate Victory in the Civil War,” author David Roos claims “the critical timing of the French defeat at the first Battle of Puebla was not lost on Mexican-Americans and other Latinos living in California, many who had flocked to the state during the Gold Rush.” Spanish newspapers in 19th-century California showed Mexican immigrants celebrating the holiday as early as 1862, gathering in Juntas Patrioticas (“Patriotic Assemblies”) in California and Nevada “to celebrate both the surprise victory at Puebla and what it meant for the Union cause. With 129 locations and 14,000 members in California alone, these Juntas Patrióticas started meeting monthly in 1862. There would be two or three energetic speeches extolling the heroism of Zaragoza and his outgunned troops and denouncing the pro-
