Cinco de Mayo (the fifth of May) commemorates a Mexican victory against the French in 1862.
History of Cinco de Mayo
The following explains how this holiday came to be so popular in the United States.
“Americans might love Cinco de Mayo, but few know what they’re celebrating” (article from The Conversation: An Independent Source of Analysis from Academic Researchers, July 2019) via Credo Reference
“After Mexico won independence from Spain in 1821, other nations were reluctant to recognize the autonomy of the fledgling country. In the ensuing decades, Mexico lost a large portion of its land to the U.S. and entered into a period of economic and political instability.
This was punctuated by a civil war in the late 1850s that resulted in Benito Juárez, Mexico’s first indigenous president, taking power in 1861.
One of Juarez’s first acts was canceling repayments on foreign loans in an attempt to protect Mexico’s struggling economy. This angered Britain, Spain and France, and prompted them to send a joint expeditionary force to Mexico. However, Britain and Spain quickly withdrew as it became clear that French ruler Napoleon III was more interested in overthrowing the new Mexican government.
The Battle of Puebla took place on May 5, 1862, when the Mexican Army, led by Commander General Ignacio Zaragoza, repelled attacks by the French army on the city of Puebla, located about 70 miles southeast of Mexico City.
It was a small but inspirational victory for Mexico, and four days later, on May 9, 1862, Juárez declared Cinco de Mayo a national holiday.”
Further, the article highlights that some historians think this victory stopped the French army from continuing north, where they might have aided the Confederacy during the U.S. Civil War and changed the course of American history.
Today, Cinco de Mayo has become very commercialized in the U.S., so it’s interesting to learn about its historical origins.
More Library Resources
El Cinco De Mayo: An American Tradition (eBook, 2012) by David Hayes-Bautista
“Hayes-Bautista shows how the meaning of Cinco de Mayo has shifted over time—it embodied immigrant nostalgia in the 1930s, U.S. patriotism during World War II, Chicano Power in the 1960s and 1970s, and commercial intentions in the 1980s and 1990s. Today, it continues to reflect the aspirations of a community that is engaged, empowered, and expanding.”
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