America's love affair with Cinco de Mayo
If you were a space traveler, and beamed down to the United States on the 5th of May, you could easily conclude that Cinco de Mayo is a day of major cultural and historical significance to Americans. And you would not be wrong.
Much the same as St. Patrick's Day, Americans have turned Cinco de Mayo into a distinctly American festival; a booze-fueled festival with vague culinary and cultural nods that has little to do with the day's original significance.
Contrary to popular American understanding, Cinco de Mayo is not Mexico's Fourth of July. Mexican Independence Day is the 16th of September, and it's every bit as big a deal in Mexico as July 4th is in the U.S.
Cinco de Mayo commemorates the day in 1862 when outnumbered Mexican forces defeated the French Army in the battle of Puebla.
Cinco de Mayo is a significant day of national commemoration, but not a national holiday in Mexico. That might be in part due to the fact that the French later retook Puebla and ruled the country for a few years under the much despised emperor, Maximillian I.
The annual celebration of Cinco de Mayo in America began a year after the battle in Columbia, California, when Mexicans in that area first heard the news of the Mexican victory and organized the first regular gatherings in honor of that event.
Over time, Cinco de Mayo celebrations have taken hold across America, including places far away from California and the southwestern U.S.
One of the largest Cinco de Mayo celebrations takes place each year in Omaha, Nebraska. The first celebration, in 1920, brought together more than five-hundred Mexican families. Since then Omaha's Cinco de Mayo celebration has grown to a three-day affair, that now draws over 125,000 people.
Currently, there are more than one-hundred and twenty official Cinco de Mayo celebrations in the United States. And countless more unofficial celebrations just about anywhere tacos and beer are sold.
And if, for Americans, St. Patrick's Day isn't totally about Ireland, then Cinco de Mayo isn't totally about Mexico. It's very much about us, and what makes us who we are as Americans. And Mexican people, food and culture are very much a part of that.
If the leprechaun and the magic of the Emerald Isle become the spirit animal of St. Patty's Day revelers everywhere, as they paint shamrocks on their faces, quaff their green beer and partake in their corned beef and cabbage, then Cinco de Mayo revelers channel the spirit of the Aztecs and the Conquistadors as they celebrate their love of Mexican culture by hosting kitschy theme parties, donning tacky sombreros, and guzzling margaritas and Mexican beer, while downing copious amounts of tacos, nachos and guacamole.
Deep down though, it's about something much more than beer and food. Americans really don't eat much corned beef and cabbage, and no one thinks green beer is a good idea the other 364 days of the year. St. Patrick's Day revelry is really about the important role played by the Irish in American life. It's a day for people with Irish heritage to show their pride, and for fellow Americans to acknowledge our profound debt to their place in our world.
The same is true for Cinco de Mayo. The day on which Americans consume as much beer as they do on Super Bowl Sunday is really about the prominent role played by Mexicans in American life. And about Americans nodding in appreciation. The beers and tacos are just a reflection of that. Ditto the colorful Mexico-themed party favors, and the zany Spring Break mentality.
Like spring breakers in Cabo, American Cinco de Mayo celebrations can be loud, brash, and border on culturally insensitive. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. Cinco de Mayo celebrations, even the shallowest ones, are still, at their core, a nod to the place of Mexico in our hearts and stomachs and lives. It is an important, if somewhat misunderstood, misguided and misappropriated day of celebration of all things Mexican, and of the important, vital, vibrant role played by Mexicans in American life.
In a cruel twist of fate, Cinco de Mayo, in this year of Covid-19, falls on Taco Tuesday. And as we are forced to examine so much of our lives right now, maybe it's a good time to examine the collective national joy that Cinco de Mayo celebrations represent; and how soon we hope to return to the world that this celebration represents.
Like most people who are sheltering in place, my wife and I will not be able to make a pilgrimage with our friends to favorite local taquerias like El Farolito, La Cumbre, or El Tonayense. However, we can definitely order some tacos to take home, and reflect, as we bask in the luxury of our favorite taco, on the St. Patrick's Day and the Cinco de Mayo that we have missed and talk about what they mean to us.
And so can you. This Cinco de Mayo, consider taking a minute to support your local taqueria. Order takeout or delivery, as appropriate, and take a minute to appreciate all that Cinco de Mayo celebrations mean about who Americans, Mexican-Americans, and Mexicans are as a people, and what their contribution means to our world.