Do you know what you are celebrating on Cinco de Mayo? If you do not know or think that you are celebrating Mexico’s Independence Day, do not worry, you are not alone.
According to Carlos Tortolero president of the national museum of Mexican art in Chicago, many non Mexican-American know the real reason behind this day.
I have also celebrated Cinco de Mayo without knowing the reason what I was celebrating, so I decided to do some research about this holiday.
I found that Cinco de Mayo remarks the anniversary of the battle of puebla in the Mexican French war of 1862.
So today I will discuss the misconceptions of thes holiday, second I will discuss the history of this day, and third I will discuss how this day became a holiday in USA.
According to a survey conducted by professors of cultural studies of the university of cincinnaty in 2004 to people who were celebrating Cinco de Mayo, 66% of people believed they were celebrating Mexico’s independence day, 20% of people believed that Mexican heritage in USA and 14% of these people did not answer or did not know.
So to clear these misconceptions I have to inform you that Mexico celebrates its independence on September 16 and that there is not an official day to celebrate Mexican heritage day in USA.
Now that I have discussed the misconceptions and that we have them clear, I will discuss the history of this day.
According to Timothy Neeno writer for the militaryhistory.com, after the Mexican American war, Mexico entered in a financial crisis that made President Benito Juarez to suspend all the foreign payments for two years. In response, Spain Great Britain and France invaded Veracruz port. After negotiations of president Juarez and diplomats from Spain and great Britain, these two nations abandoned Mexico. But French, ruled by emperor Napoleon III use this invasion as an opportunity to establish a Latin empire. So Napoleon III sent General Charles de Lorencez with 6500 well equipped soldiers to take control of the Mexican capital, Mexico City. on their way to Mexico City, General de Lorencez arrived at the town of puebla, a small town in east central Mexico, on March 5 1862, where Mexican General Ignacio Zaragoza and his 4000 soldiers, many of them agricultural workers and poorly equipped with old rifles and machetes, were protecting the town.
Even though the French army was the best army of the world at this time and they outnumber the Mexican army 2 to 1, General Zaragoza and his men were able to defeat General de Lorencez in an epic battle.
This victory was very important to