When Labor Day rolls around, Americans rarely make mention of
the country
’s legends of labor. The Fourth of July is known mostly for
fireworks and car sales. And all manner of things are promoted
during the Christmas season, from war toys and alcohol to film
releases and sometimes even midnight mass.
When Labor Day rolls around, Americans rarely make mention of the country’s legends of labor.
The Fourth of July is known mostly for fireworks and car sales. And all manner of things are promoted during the Christmas season, from war toys and alcohol to film releases and sometimes even midnight mass.
Cinco de Mayo is no different. And make no mistake about it: It’s a holiday that’s as American as a case of Corona Light.
“It’s not celebrated in Mexico in any serious fashion,” said Enrique Luna, a Mexican-American history instructor at Gavilan College. “What it is, is an ethnic celebration in the United States, so think of it as a U.S. holiday, not a Mexican holiday.”
That’s not to say the Fifth of May has no cultural significance, he said. Since it was popularized in the United States early last century, Mexican nationals living in the United States, Mexican-Americans and finally those of other cultures have seized on the holiday to celebrate different aspects of Mexican culture.
Cinco de Mayo, sometimes mistaken for Mexican Independence Day, actually marks a battle that took place one morning in 1862 in Puebla, Mexico, where French troops were routed by an outnumbered Mexican army led by a Texas-born Chicano, General Ignacio Zaragosa. The victory became a source of great regional pride in Puebla, but did not have a significant impact on Mexican independence. The French eventually returned, conquered and appointed a foreign emperor to rule.
But the essence of the battle at Puebla – outnumbered Mexicans overcoming foreigners attempting to marginalize their place in society – was revived in the early 1900s in Texas, where people of Mexican heritage were relegated to second-class citizenship in a society rife with racism, in a land that was once their own, Luna said.
“Cinco de Mayo appeared there for a really interesting reason,” said Luna. “To maintain self-worth in an environment of extreme segregation and oppression from a growing Anglo population.”
As Mexican-Americans made inroads into mainstream U.S. society in the 1960s and 1970s, young Latinos struggled in high schools and colleges for a bigger voice on campus and better representation in classroom curricula, said Veronica Guajardo, who has helped organize Cinco de Mayo celebrations at Gavilan and is director of a program there to help math students transfer to four-year universities.
Like others in the Latino community, Guajardo derides attempts to commercialize the holiday with beer commercials and the like. But she says Cinco de Mayo’s popularity in the United States, rather than Mexico, speaks of its appeal to Mexican-Americans who, as American citizens of Mexican heritage, feel part of both cultures.
“As Chicanos that live in this country, we do straddle two cultures, and we do kind of embrace the two realities of what we are and where we live,” she said. “In many ways, it has become a way of embracing that connection to a native country. For many people, it has become many things – a symbol of resistance, a symbol of culture, a day to just to have a party and drink. For some people, it’s a day of education. People take different aspects of it and do different things.”
Today it’s also used as a bridge, from one culture to another.
Organizers in Morgan Hill, for instance, are planning a Cinco de Mayo celebration they hope will attract everyone in the community.
“We are confident the local Hispanic community will support the event, but we also want to invite the non-Hispanic members of our community,” said Julian Mancias, a San Martin real estate agent who is on the event’s steering committee. “We’re raising our culture and we know it and we love it, but we want to share our culture, too.”
As a holiday first celebrated by marginalized people in Texas seeking a greater status in society, perhaps the Morgan Hill event’s aim to help day laborers is a goal that remains true to the spirit of Cinco de Mayo. But as with all American holidays, the nature of the celebration appears to change with the times.
“If holidays have flexibility and if they have a larger image, they tend to grow,” said Luna. “If they are overly myopic or whatever, they tend to disappear in time.”
