In Mexico, Cinco de Mayo Isn’t the 4th of July

Mexicans always seem surprised about the extent and fervor of Cinco de Mayo celebrations in the United States, fiestas that easily surpass the scope of commemorations of that historic date south of the border.

What is it with American interest in the whipping that a ragtag Mexican Army and militiamen gave to the vaunted French Army of Napoleon III (known in Mexico as “el Pequeo,” the little one) at the city of Puebla in 1862?

Could it be that the occasion represents an excellent opportunity for U.S. political leaders to court their new Mexican American constituents?

Whatever the reason, for all its popularity, the holiday is misunderstood here. It is not Mexico’s Independence Day, as many here think (that is Sept. 16), and it is not the sort of holiday-themed commercial happening that we have come to associate with the Southwestern U.S. Nor does it represent a small milestone in the pantheon of Mexican heroic deeds.

So, what is Cinco de Mayo?

The event also known as the Battle of Puebla was a sort of rallying point in the long and costly resistance of the Mexican people against foreign intervention. This battle took place just a few years after another, more costly intervention that came from the north and severed half of the nation’s territory. At Puebla, the wound was still fresh, and sometimes it seems that even now it hasn’t yet healed.

Actually, the feat of arms on May 5, 1862, on the outskirts of the colonial town some 70 miles south of Mexico City didn’t win the war against the French empire. It was a minor setback for the disciplined expeditionary force of Napoleon III, supposedly the best soldiers in the world, who with allied troops of the Mexican Conservative Party, time after time attacked the forts of Loreto and Guadalupe which defended the city, only to be repulsed by the fighters of Gen. Ignacio Zaragoza.

The French were in Mexico because in 1861 the Mexican president, facing a great economic crisis, had suspended payment on all foreign debts for two years. France decided to conquer Mexico and rule it through a puppet government. Napoleon’s Mexican minions had gone all the way to Europe looking for a monarch and settled on a throneless Hapsburg prince, Maximillian. The French invaded Mexico the following January, and it wasn’t long before they occupied a sizable chunk of the nation.

But the triumph of Puebla united the Mexican people against la Intervencion and gave precious breathing space to the president of the republic, Benito Juarez. A full-blooded Indian from Oaxaca, Juarez rode in an austere black carriage on the dusty roads of Mexico one step ahead of the pursuing enemy.

The victory at Puebla also gave support to the legality of the Mexican cause, sustained against incredible odds by the illustrious reform era of Juarez.

The war went on for five more heartbreaking years of bloodshed and suffering, until the court martial and execution of Emperor Maximilian and the withdrawal of Napoleon’s troops.

Cinco de Mayo is a cornerstone of Mexico’s history. It symbolizes the decision of a nation and its people to conserve their own identity, their liberty and their self-determination. It represents also the will to repel foreign intervention, a commitment synonymous to all that is Mexican.

That’s what Cinco de Mayo is.