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The History Behind Cinco De Mayo

Posted on April 30, 2009

Cinco de mayo history

The 5th of May is not Mexican Independence Day, but it should be! And Cinco de Mayo is not an American holiday, but it should be. Mexico declared its independence from mother Spain on midnight, the 15th of September, 1810. And it took 11 years before the first Spanish soldiers were told and forced to leave Mexico.

So, why Cinco de Mayo? And why should Americans savor this day as well? Because 4,000 Mexican soldiers smashed the French and traitor Mexican army of 8,000 at Puebla, Mexico, 100 miles east of Mexico City on the morning of May 5, 1862.

The French had landed in Mexico (along with Spanish and English troops) five months earlier on the pretext of collecting Mexican debts from the newly elected government of democratic President (and Indian) Benito Juarez. The English and Spanish quickly made deals and left. The French, however, had different ideas.

Under Emperor Napoleon III, who detested the United States, the French came to stay. They brought a Hapsburg prince with them to rule the new Mexican empire. His name was Maximilian; his wife, Carolota. Napoleon’s French Army had not been defeated in 50 years, and it invaded Mexico with the finest modern equipment and with a newly reconstituted Foreign Legion. The French were not afraid of anyone, especially since the United States was embroiled in its own Civil War.

The French Army left the port of Vera Cruz to attack Mexico City to the west, as the French assumed that the Mexicans would give up should their capital fall to the enemy — as European countries traditionally did.

Under the command of Texas-born General Zaragosa, (and the cavalry under the command of Colonel Porfirio Diaz, later to be Mexico’s president and dictator), the Mexicans awaited. Brightly dressed French Dragoons led the enemy columns. The Mexican Army was less stylish.

General Zaragosa ordered Colonel Diaz to take his cavalry, the best in the world, out to the French flanks. In response, the French did a most stupid thing; they sent their cavalry off to chase Diaz and his men, who proceeded to butcher them. The remaining French infantrymen charged the Mexican defenders through sloppy mud from a thunderstorm and through hundreds of head of stampeding cattle stirred up by Indians armed only with machetes.( Read more at: http://www.vivacincodemayo.org/history.htm)

The History Behind Cinco De Mayo

inco de Mayo (the fifth of May) is upon us, and like many holidays of international significance, the origins are often so disconnected from the revelry that few can say precisely what the real significance is.

Cinco de Mayo’s local meaning is two-fold. It is a commemoration of an important battle in the struggle against colonialism in Mexico and an internationally-adopted festival.

In Mexico in 1861, President Benito Juarez declared that his government would delay for two years what he saw as exorbitant debt payments to the European powers of France, Britain, and Spain. In response, the Europeans decided to invade and conquer Mexico and install a puppet regime.

In an era before economic sanctions and bond-rating devaluations became the favored manner for coercing small countries, this sort of “negotiation” was not unusual.

The action ran afoul of the United States’ Monroe Doctrine, which holds that colonialization attempts by European powers anywhere in the Western Hemisphere are considered acts of aggression against the U.S.  However, in 1861 the American Civil War precluded President Lincoln from interfering, and the invasion went forward.

Early on, Spain and Britain reached terms with the Mexican Government and withdrew their forces. That left France, which proceeded with the planned campaign. After initial setbacks, the Mexican Army retreated to the fortified city of Puebla, and determined to make a stand there.

The Mexican Army decided to fight despite being outnumbered two to one and having poor equipment with which to face the French Regulars. Assuming incorrectly that the local population would support him, French General Charles de Lorencez repeatedly assaulted the Mexican positions, hoping that if he could break their lines he could deal a death blow to organized resistance.

In spite of the odds, the Mexican army managed to hold a trench line that connected two small forts, and at the critical moment Mexican General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín turned the French flank with infantry sallies and cavalry charges through thunderstorms and drove the French army from the field with great numbers of casualties.

The war didn’t end there, and eventually the French succeeded in temporarily deposing the Mexican government, which was restored to power in 1867. United States Army General Phil Sheridan admitted leaving weapons in the desert to be “found” by the Mexican forces in their struggle to reclaim their government, and many former civil war soldiers joined the Mexicans in fighting for their cause.

That came later however, after that day early in the war when Mexican Nationals against all odds defeated a much larger force and in doing so firmly established the committed nationalism that formed the basis for real independence.

Ironically, celebration of Cinco de Mayo in Mexico is primarily limited to the area around Puebla, where the battle was fought. In the United States, however, the day is celebrated in a fashion similar to the way St. Patrick’s Day or Oktoberfest transcend their roots, and it now appeals to a much broader range of of Americans.

So head on over to Clark Street this weekend, have some authentic food, and raise a glass to a great modern tradition and the tale of bravery and sacrifice that is at its origins.

Categories: Culture

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