Posted on 05/05/2012 8:45:52 AM PDT by mandaladon
Los Angeles (CNN) -- Cinco de Mayo -- the unofficial U.S. holiday long believed to have been imported, with celebratory beer, from Mexico -- isn't a Mexican holiday at all but rather an American one created by Latinos in the West during the Civil War, according to new research by a California professor.
Conventional thinking has held that the holiday -- now a commercial juggernaut -- may have grown out of the mass migrations from the bloody Mexican Revolution of the 1910s or even during Chicano Power activism of the 1960s, University of California at Los Angeles Professor David Hayes-Bautista said.
But on the 150th anniversary of the holiday, Hayes-Bautista is announcing that he happened upon the true origins of Cinco de Mayo -- the 5th of May -- after poring over Spanish-language newspapers in California from the mid-1800s while working on another research project.
Cinco de Mayo does indeed mark a Mexican military victory over the invading French army on May 5, 1862, but it's celebrated more in the United States because in 1862, U.S. Latinos of Mexican heritage parlayed the victory as a rallying cry that the Union could also win the Civil War.
That's because the French sympathized with the Confederacy, and Hispanics sided with the Union in its fight against slavery and elitism, Hayes-Bautista said. France sought to impose a monarchy over democratic Mexico while U.S. foreign power weakened during the War Between the States.
Hayes-Bautista, a UCLA professor of medicine whose family lore holds his great-great grandfather fought in the famous Cinco de Mayo battle, has just published a new book on the discovery, "El Cinco de Mayo: An American Tradition," which one historian also at UCLA describes as "of great significance."
(Excerpt) Read more at edition.cnn.com ...
“Or, as our astute President said, Cinco de Cuatro...my preference is for Siete de Nueve, though.”
Or what do you call four Mexicans in a rowboat that’s going down?
Quatro Cinco!
Cinco de Mayo, proudly sponsored by the Tequila Marketing Association.
But when they achieved independence they failed to do the one thing that would have saved them; throw out all the white Spaniards who are now the "elite" and keeping the natives in their place. < /sarc >
LOL...best response so far.
Is Cinco de Mayo anything like a Latino Kwaanza?
The French lost the battle but they conquered Mexico and only left because of the end of the US Civil War. They made Maximilian the emperor of Mexico.
Cinco de Marxo
You are right. Gonna eat with the father-in-law later today. Where.....wait for it....Mexican Villa.
I don’t think I ever met David Hayes-Bautista, but I have met his ex-wife (now a professor at a different university) many years ago (as I recall they were already estranged so I assume they have long been divorced). He’s at the “Cesar Chavez Department of Chicana/o Studies”—political correctness trumps Spanish grammar. (The form “Chicano” should include both male and female.)
If some want to celebrate it, I don’t give a big damn. I won’t be. I’d say 80% of the people that observe it just use it for a reason to get half drunk.
The holiday will never truly catch on, because it can’t be easily ‘financialized’, unless you are a brewer or bar owner.
Every holiday is fabricated by someone.
press one for ENGLISH or then press one until you learn ENGLISH!
According to the left these days should not be American days of remembrance:
1) Veterans Day—Celebrates American Imperialism
2) Presidents Day— Washington was a racist slave holder
3) Columbus Day—more Western Imperialism
4) Christmas—Pagan Holiday that offends Islam
5) Easter—same
6) St Patricks Day—too White Catholic
7) Thanksgiving—offensive to native Americans
8) Memorial Day—too military
9) Flag Day—shows a worldwide symbol of hate and oppression
10) Pulaski Day—too Euro-centric
Is Debbie Wasserman-Schultz the poster queen for
Cinco de Mayonaise?
Just like Kwanzaa is right
Might wish to make a little wardrobe adjustment. . .your anti-Catholic bigotry is showing.
“Pulaski Day”?
Catholic hierarchy picked the leaders for Mexico. First was the Tratado de Cordova when the Virey Donaju gave Iturbide the Divine Right to be emperor. It was nice that Benito Juarez inclinced towards a more lay gov’t. Does this make me anti Catholic...okay. Tri Garantia of 1828 Iguala, All Mexicans by law had to be Catholic. Dec. 4th, 1860, by Presidential Degree of Benito Juarez Freedom to chose your religion. Sorry if the facts get in the way of your world view.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.