Introduction:
To believe or say that 5 de Mayo is Mexico’s Independence Day is a popular misconception. In Mexico, Cinco de Mayo commemorates the Battle of Puebla Day.While it is a relatively minor holiday, in the United States, Cinco de Mayo has evolved into a commemoration of Mexican culture and heritage, especially in areas with a large Mexican-American population.
In Mexico, the holiday is only celebrated regionally. Today, 5 de Mayo isn’t observed throughout all of Mexico, and it’s primarily celebrated in Puebla, where the battle the holiday celebrates takes place. This blog will explain the real meaning of the 5 de Mayo celebration in the USA.
But what happened on 5 de Mayo 1862 in Puebla:
The Battle of Puebla is deeply rooted among Mexicans and the Latino community in the United States; it is an even more significant celebration than Independence Day. There is a reason. The Battle of Puebla took place on 5 de Mayo, 1862. The Mexican army faced the French, who were much more significant in numbers and firepower. General Ignacio Zaragoza led the Mexicans, who won the battle against all odds.
Zaragoza died only four months after that great victory on September 8, 1862, a victim of murine typhus, a disease transmitted by rat fleas.
On 5 de Mayo, 1867, five years after the Battle of Puebla, a group of Mexicans celebrated that victory in Texas, which was the place where Zaragoza was born in 1829, 16 years before Texas was annexed as part of the United States. From then on, the famous celebration became a symbol for Mexicans living under oppression by invaders or foreign governments. It gained roots among those residing in the states that belonged to Mexico.
Other Latinos began to celebrate 5 de Mayo and it became very popular. In 1930, the Mexican consulate in Los Angeles celebrated this date, making it official, which united Mexicans already living there and new migrants arriving in the United States.
Why is 5 de Mayo celebrated so much in the United States?
To understand why, we must discuss the Chicano Social Movement, which is commemorated on this date, as a symbol of Mexican heritage in the United States and the fight for civil rights of Chicanos in the United States, who fought for equality in areas such as education and social rights for farm workers.
1.Equality in the schools 1945
Segregation in American schools was latent. When Westminster School in Orange County, California, rejected the three children of Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez, Mexican and Puerto Rican, the outraged couple sued on behalf of themselves and other families in 1945. Thanks to the famous Mendez v. Westminster School District case, social equality was regulated as a “fundamental requirement” of the U.S. school system. Official segregation in California public schools was abolished in 1947.
2.Chavez and Huerta gave farmworkers a voice in 1962
In 1962, activists Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta co-founded an organization for farmworkers, which would later become the United Farm Workers (UFW). Through marches, strikes, and boycotts, the organization the organization got landowners to respect farmworkers’ rights, pay them fair wages, and provide them with meaningful benefits, such as health care and other services.
3. When language was no longer a barrier in 1970
On May 25 of that year, the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare issued a memorandum stating that a lack of understanding of English was not a reason not to integrate minorities into the educational system. This fact was reaffirmed in the Lau v. Nichols case when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Asian student Kinney Timmon Lau, determining that everyone can access to educational programs without being required to know English. In 1974, Congress passed the Equal Educational Opportunity Act (EEOA).
4.Voting Rights 1975
After an immigrant testified about the discrimination faced by non-English speakers at the polls, Congress voted to expand the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) so there would be no shortage of multilingual voting assistance. Initially, the law applied only to African Americans and Puerto Ricans, but in 1975 it was amended to assist all non-English speaking minorities.
5 de Mayo Latino Pride Day
Today 5 de Mayo has become a cultural holiday celebrating Mexicans and Latinos in the United States. The largest Cinco de Mayo celebrations occur in American cities with large Hispanic populations, such as Los Angeles, which attracts hundreds of thousands each year to its Fiesta Broadway festival.
Today, some of the biggest festivals are held in Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston. They celebrate the occasion with parades, parties, mariachi music, Mexican folk dancing and traditional foods such as tacos and mole poblano.
By 1989, a brewery had launched an advertising campaign that extolled Mexican elements, the Cinco de Mayo celebration, and beer, extending the celebration’s roots. Today, the holiday is known as Latino Pride Day, when mariachi bands perform in public squares, regional Mexican cuisine is tasted, and Chicanos in the United States are vindicated.
5 de Mayo is reportedly one of the top five drinking holidays in America, with many celebrations including tequila, beer, and margaritas. Parties might include Mariachi bands and even traditional Mexican dancing. But just like other holidays in the US, it’s led to cultural appropriation, like wearing ponchos and sombreros to take tequila shots while ignoring their essential role in Mexican culture. Also, Americans used the holiday as an excuse to eat Mexican-inspired food like tacos, enchiladas, and chile rellenos — though how authentic the food people celebrate with is certainly up for debate.
5 de Mayo today
With approximately 40 million Mexicans in the United States, the integration of the language and culture is part of the Latino community and around the United States. It is very worth celebrating this identity that allows maintaining the value of the culture and the ancestors of the Latino community since it is a struggle that, seen in another way, is also part of the construction of the sense of belonging of a community, maintaining traditions and speaking the language of past generations, such as Spanish.
One of the benefits of learning a language is not only to know a language but to understand the culture and traditions of the other, and if you live in the US, Mexico, or any other Spanish-speaking country, speaking Spanish will allow you not only to communicate but to integrate and understand many customs of the people, in Wara-Wara Spanish one of our goals is to transmit the culture in each of our classes from day one.
This 5 de Mayo celebrate with more than just margaritas and tacos, celebrates Latin culture and heritage by speaking Spanish today.
Responses