While the celebration of Cinco De Mayo --the Fifth of May is fast approaching, Latino organizations and clubs around San Diego are preparing to commemorate the event. But how many people actually know what that event is?
A common misperception is that Cinco De Mayo celebrates Mexican Independence Day. In fact, Mexican independence is celebrated (in Mexico) on Sept. 16.
Cinco De Mayo is the anniversary of the Battle of Puebla in 1862, when 2,000 Mexican soldiers and townspeople managed to hold off more than 6,000 French troops. The interesting thing is, neither Mexico nor the United States celebrate both holidays.
Isidro Ortiz, head of the Mexican American Studies department at San Diego State University, said, "In practice now, it seems that Cinco de Mayo is more celebrated on this side of the border than on the other side."
Meanwhile, in the United States, it's Sept. 16 that often goes by unnoticed.
"Basically, in Mexico, they don't celebrate the Fourth of July (American Independence Day), so they don't celebrate Sept. 16 in the United States," said Marcela Ayala, chairwoman of SDSU's chapter of MEChA, the main Latino organization in California. "But because there's such a large population of Latinos in California, they celebrate Cinco De Mayo."
Ortiz said that among Chicanos, particularly those who grew up during the social activism of the 1960s, Cinco de Mayo represents a people's struggle against oppression.
"We had a case where we had an invading French army that was being resisted by Mexican forces," Ortiz said. "So for Chicanos today, who historically have engaged in resistance against oppression, it represents one victory against oppression."
But, according to Guillermo Mayer, president elect of the Associated Students of SDSU, there might be an ulterior motive behind some of the celebrations. Corporate America, he said, has seized the holiday as an opportunity to commercialize it, just as it has done with other holidays.
"The same thing is happening to Cinco de Mayo in the sense that's it's now more of a party thing," Mayer said. "Instead of your regular Budweiser models, now they're Latina Budweiser models."
Whatever the reason, the Battle of Puebla is celebrated as a key victory in Mexico's struggle for self-determination. Often unnoticed, however, are the struggles that led up to that fateful May day and the even deeper battles Mexico faced after it.
The battle before the battle
The Mexico that fought the Battle of Puebla had been shaped directly by the War of the Reform that tore the country apart from 1858 to 1861. By the time new President Benito Juarez and his liberal forces won the conflict, the country was in shambles, politically, economically and most of all, socially.
As Michael Meyer and William L. Sherman wrote in their book "The Course of Mexican History":
The desolation left in the wake of the civil conflict showed on the landscape dotted with burned haciendas and mills, potted roads, unrepaired bridges, neglected fields and sacked villages. But more important, it was epitomized in the minds and bodies of tens of thousands of exhausted, crippled, and aggrieved Mexicans.
The country needed a stable transition, and though Juarez easily won, his government was divided.
Juarez encouraged open debate in his administration, but such a policy almost ended his presidency: a congressional vote to demand his resignation lost by one vote.
The national deficit had reached $400,000 by September 1861, and European creditors were barking at Juarez's heels. On Oct. 31, Spain, England and France agreed to the Convention of London, whereby they would jointly occupy Mexico's coasts until it paid off its debts.
By February 1862, even after Britain and Spain left Mexico, the French remained. Emperor Napoleon III had sought to bring his "Second French Empire" to the New World, and Mexico gave him a golden opportunity.
General Charles LaTrille had been informed by his country's minister in Mexico City that the French would be welcomed in the rural city of Puebla.
"But Puebla, although conservative and pro-clerical," Meyer and Sherman wrote, "was not to be such an easy price."
Puebla
On May 5, Latrille faced General Ignacio Zaragoza, who had fought well in the War of the Reform. Though numerically superior, the invaders attacked recklessly, using up half their ammunition in the conflict's first two hours.
The deciding factor in the battle was led by Brigadier General Porfirio Diaz and the Mexican army's Second Brigade. Late that afternoon, Diaz held off an attack on Zaragoza's right flank. The French retreated to the city of Orizaba shortly thereafter, and May 5 became a rallying point for Mexicans everywhere.
Ironically, Diaz himself would be the victim of a revolution in 1910. This came after he seized control of the country in 1876 and set out on a 34-year course to modernize Mexico.
But, on this day, the country had made a stand.
"All of us look at it as a day when all of us united and fought against the oppressors," Ayala said. "The ones who were coming in and trying to take over their pueblito. It's not about two-for-one drink specials. It's about trying to communicate our history."
What's forgotten, however, is that the French rose again within a year. They attacked Puebla again, this time taking the city after a two-month siege. The attack reduced it to rubble and forced the inhabitants to eat their own pets.
"The French did succeed in invading Mexico," Ortiz said. "But at least there was that resistance."
Winning the war
Juarez fled for San Luis Potosi as French troops occupied Mexico City in 1863. Napoleon III installed Austrian archduke Ferdinand Maximillian of Hapsburg as emperor of Mexico.
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