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 ...
Do they celebrate the 4th of July in Mexico?
Cinco de Mayo, Reconquista, latin purity, blah blah blah....for all the blathering about retaking what was theirs, maintaining identity, etc., it is ironic that the proponents no longer speak the language of their ancient forefathers, but speak Spanish, highly mutated by Spanglish influences....from their less-ancient ‘forefathers’ that conquered them. George Lopez can suck it.
How nice! Giving illegals that are sucking the life out of this country a day to celebrate. S/
Let’s just rename it Progressive Vote Pandering de Mayo and be done with it.
Because of the war in 1861, the United States was not in a position to enforce the Monroe Doctrine against French imperial designs.
Annoying to say the least. Sure are a lot of lies in the history books nowadays.
Cinco de Mayo was created in the US by Marxists. The fifth of May is Karl Marx's Birthday !!!
bttt
Or, as our astute President said, Cinco de Cuatro...my preference is for Siete de Nueve, though.
(post photo here if I could)
Hey, the guy who led Mexican Forces against the French was a TEXAN, born right there in Goliad, Texas...The only American Born Citizen to have his picture on a 500 dollar peso bill. It’s all about Texas! They are proud of Ignacio Zaragoza. NOW can we celebrate?
In fact, May 5th is a celebration marking the ongoing Mexican conquest of the American Southwest.
Same here at 68. Hey, any excuse for a party!
Cinco de Mayo is like Obama’s girlfriend in his faux-autobiographies: Fabricated.
That professor is a typical leftist idiot. Mexico’s Independence Day is September 16th, their independence from Spain. Every Mexican I know here or have met down there, knows that. Cinco de Mayo is a minor holiday, not even considered important. But leave it up to the Gringo’s marketing genius to find another reason to get stupid Americans into an ethic restaurant American owned most likely) and drink Mexican beer and tequila. Duh.
Not only did Benito Juarez conquer the FRENCH, he withstood the Power of the Papacy... Mexican’s don’t like to remember this. GOD HIMSELF HELPED BENITO JUAREZ THAT DAY, dear ole Porfirio Diaz got delayed in Atlixtco, and God sent RAIN in torrential ways to cause the French much havoc in their ability to array the battle. GOD SAVED MEXICO ON CINCO DE MAYO from the FRENCH and from THE PAPACY.. Their Constutitional Gov’t surviced thanks to an Indian Zapotec and a Texan born near Seguin. Let’s Celebrate.
Cinco de Mayo ass.
Exactly. Cinco de Mayo is nothing more than one more reason to go out and get drunk here in the US.
I'll start celebrating Cinco de Mayo here when they start celebrating Quatro de Julio there.
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