"5 de Mayo" or "Battle of Puebla" or both

(My new American Thinker post)  

Today we celebrate “Cinco de Mayo” in Dallas, Los Angeles and elsewhere.   Your favorite Mexican restaurant will be all dressed up and ready to serve a delicious round of nachos, enchiladas and beer.    "It sells a lot  of beer" as my Filipino friend who owns a Mexican restaurant likes to boast.  He doesn't really know anything about "Cinco de Mayo" but the sound of the register makes him happy.  

So what’s the big deal about “Cinco de Mayo”?  Why is everyone so happy and festive?

Allan Wall, who lived in Mexico, wrote a good summary for those of us who are not Mexican or studied Mexican history in school.   

Here it is so read it before your beer & nachos:     

Cinco de Mayo, Spanish for “May the 5th,” is the holiday celebrating the Mexican victory over the French army on May the 5th, 1862, at Puebla, east of Mexico City.

The city of Puebla holds a big annual celebration on the anniversary of the battle. But in most of Mexico, Cinco de Mayo is not really an important holiday. It’s mostly a bank holiday and a day off from school. But this year it’s on a Saturday so my students don’t even get a break for it!

In the United States however, Cinco de Mayo has become, in recent years, the major Mexican – American celebration. Throughout the Southwest, and in other parts of the U.S., there are various Cinco de Mayo celebrations – parades, mariachi music performances, and exhibitions of Mexican dancing, etc.

Washington D.C. has an annual Cinco de Mayo Festival and President Bush is known for Cinco de Mayo celebrations in the White House. Cinco de Mayo is also a big beer-drinking day, with Mexican beer brands doing 5-10% of their U.S. sales for the occasion.

“Cinco de Mayo” means "Fifth of May".

In the U.S., especially in the Southwest, “Cinco de Mayo” has turned into a day of celebrating Mexican heritage.  

Down in Mexico, “Cinco de Mayo” is about a battle around Puebla, or south of Mexico City.  Up here,  it is one big excuse for taking a longer lunch.

So another "Cinco de Mayo" is here.  Up here, we will eat some good Mexican food.  

Down in Mexico, they will ask again:  "Why are those gringos suddenly so crazy about Mexican food"?

Enjoy your Mexican food.  We all need an hour off from inflation, gas prices and leaks.

P.S.  You can listen to my show.  If you like our posts, please look for ”Donate” on the right column of the blog page.

"Cinco de Mayo" is not Mexico's July 4th!

(My new American Thinker post)  

Today we celebrate “Cinco de Mayo” in Dallas, Los Angeles and elsewhere.   Your favorite Mexican restaurant will be all dressed up and ready to serve a delicious round of nachos, enchiladas and beer.    "It sells a lot  of beer" as my Filipino friend who owns a Mexican restaurant likes to boast.  He doesn't really know anything about "Cinco de Mayo" but the sound of the register makes him happy.  

So what’s the big deal about “Cinco de Mayo”?  Why is everyone so happy and festive?

Allan Wall, who lived in Mexico, wrote a good summary for those of us who are not Mexican or studied Mexican history in school.   

Here it is so read it before your beer & nachos:     

Cinco de Mayo, Spanish for “May the 5th,” is the holiday celebrating the Mexican victory over the French army on May the 5th, 1862, at Puebla, east of Mexico City.

The city of Puebla holds a big annual celebration on the anniversary of the battle. But in most of Mexico, Cinco de Mayo is not really an important holiday. It’s mostly a bank holiday and a day off from school. But this year it’s on a Saturday so my students don’t even get a break for it!

In the United States however, Cinco de Mayo has become, in recent years, the major Mexican – American celebration. Throughout the Southwest, and in other parts of the U.S., there are various Cinco de Mayo celebrations – parades, mariachi music performances, and exhibitions of Mexican dancing, etc.

Washington D.C. has an annual Cinco de Mayo Festival and President Bush is known for Cinco de Mayo celebrations in the White House. Cinco de Mayo is also a big beer-drinking day, with Mexican beer brands doing 5-10% of their U.S. sales for the occasion.

“Cinco de Mayo” means "Fifth of May".

In the U.S., especially in the Southwest, “Cinco de Mayo” has turned into a day of celebrating Mexican heritage.  

Down in Mexico, “Cinco de Mayo” is about a battle around Puebla, or south of Mexico City.  Up here,  it is one big excuse for taking a longer lunch.

So another "Cinco de Mayo" is here.  Up here, we will eat some good Mexican food.  

Down in Mexico, they will ask again:  "Why are those gringos suddenly so crazy about Mexican food"?

Enjoy your Mexican food.  We all need an hour off from inflation, gas prices and leaks.

P.S.  You can listen to my show.  If you like our posts, please look for ”Donate” on the right column of the blog page.

Happy "5 de Mayo" to all of our Mexican friends

(My new American Thinker post)  

Today we celebrate “Cinco de Mayo” in Dallas, Los Angeles and elsewhere.   Your favorite Mexican restaurant will be all dressed up and ready to serve a delicious round of nachos, enchiladas and beer.    "It sells a lot  of beer" as my Filipino friend who owns a Mexican restaurant likes to boast.  He doesn't really know anything about "Cinco de Mayo" but the sound of the register makes him happy.  

So what’s the big deal about “Cinco de Mayo”?  Why is everyone so happy and festive?

Allan Wall, who lived in Mexico, wrote a good summary for those of us who are not Mexican or studied Mexican history in school.   

Here it is so read it before your beer & nachos:     

Cinco de Mayo, Spanish for “May the 5th,” is the holiday celebrating the Mexican victory over the French army on May the 5th, 1862, at Puebla, east of Mexico City.

The city of Puebla holds a big annual celebration on the anniversary of the battle. But in most of Mexico, Cinco de Mayo is not really an important holiday. It’s mostly a bank holiday and a day off from school. But this year it’s on a Saturday so my students don’t even get a break for it!

In the United States however, Cinco de Mayo has become, in recent years, the major Mexican – American celebration. Throughout the Southwest, and in other parts of the U.S., there are various Cinco de Mayo celebrations – parades, mariachi music performances, and exhibitions of Mexican dancing, etc.

Washington D.C. has an annual Cinco de Mayo Festival and President Bush is known for Cinco de Mayo celebrations in the White House. Cinco de Mayo is also a big beer-drinking day, with Mexican beer brands doing 5-10% of their U.S. sales for the occasion.

“Cinco de Mayo” means "Fifth of May".

In the U.S., especially in the Southwest, “Cinco de Mayo” has turned into a day of celebrating Mexican heritage.  

Down in Mexico, “Cinco de Mayo” is about a battle around Puebla, or south of Mexico City.  Up here,  it is one big excuse for taking a longer lunch.

So another "Cinco de Mayo" is here.  Up here, we will eat some good Mexican food.  

Down in Mexico, they will ask again:  "Why are those gringos suddenly so crazy about Mexican food"?

Enjoy your Mexican food.  We all need an hour off from inflation, gas prices and leaks.

P.S.  You can listen to my show.  If you like our posts, please look for ”Donate” on the right column of the blog page.

Next year, Mexico would like Cinco de Mayo back

 

(My new American Thinker post)

May 5 is Exhibit A in contrasts.  Up here, it's a day to eat Mexican food and enjoy a parade.  Down in Mexico, May 5 is a day to remember a battle that few people remember.

Back in 1862, the French met the Mexicans in Puebla, south of Mexico City.  It was a consequential battle because a weaker Mexican force defeated the superior French army.  This is the story:

It marks the unlikely 1862 victory of Mexican forces over French invaders in Puebla and is nearly as much a symbol of the nation's eternal struggle to maintain its independence as the 16th of September.

In the state of Puebla, it is a full-on holiday, with plenty of parades and merrymaking, as well as food and folklore festivals. But for most of the rest of Mexico, Cinco de Mayo (May 5, which this year falls on a Friday) has become a passé holiday, sometimes observed by government offices and schools in order to extend the Labor Day break, but infrequently revered for the importance it played in the nation's history.

Strangely enough, though, that is not the case in the United States, where May 5 is revered by Mexican immigrants and gringos alike as a celebration of all things Mexican, including music, art, food, drink and culture. For Mexicans and other Latinos living in the United States, the Cinco de Mayo holiday is seen as an alternative Mexican Independence Day, especially in Los Angeles, San Jose, San Francisco, San Antonio, Sacramento, Albuquerque, Denver and El Paso, where large segments of the population have Mexican roots.

And by osmosis, Cinco de Mayo has become a day that commemorates the role that Mexican immigrants have played in their adopted home, with many public schools and offices equating it with Mexican heritage and traditions and even hoisting Mexican flags in honor of the occasion.

The holiday has become so ingrained in U.S. culture, in fact, that 16 years ago, lawmakers in Washington passed a resolution calling for its recognition as a historically significant holiday. But while the United States may have expropriated the Cinco de Mayo holiday as its own, the events it commemorates are strictly Mexican.

Cinco de Mayo officially marks the anniversary of the Battle of Puebla, led by Ignacio Zaragoza against Napoleon III's forces, but not the expulsion of the French from Mexico, which would take another five years to come to pass. Perhaps it was the fleeting nature of Zaragoza's success that is behind the disremembering of the once-important holiday in Mexico, or the fact that it has evolved into a confused gringo celebration of Mexican ethnicity.

But for whatever reasons it has lost relevance nationally, it is still on the books as a date of Mexican glory on the battlefield, and certainly merits a hat tip in Mexico, especially if you consider how many tequilas are being raised to toast the Cinco north of the border.

Yes, a consequential victory goes largely unnoticed.  I lived and worked in Mexico City and saw very little about this day.  I remember a few military academies celebrating the day with parades and flag-waving.  As the article points out, most of the country doesn't see it as much to celebrate.

What would have happened if Mexico had lost this battle?  It could have been a major victory for France and its ambitions to turn Mexico into its Algeria on this side of the world.

My Mexican friends love that we enjoy enchiladas and beer on "Cinco de Mayo."  They say "mucho gusto amigo."  At the same time, they'd love their "Cinco" back and more recognition of an important battle and the brave men who fought that day.

PS: Check out my blog for posts, podcasts, and videos.

Vietnam 1975. Fetterman switching parties? Barney Frank talks. Rudy Giuliani hospitalized.

 

Vietnam 1975. Fetterman switching parties? Barney Frank talks. Rudy Giuliani hospitalized.

The week it became Ho Chi Minh City

The week it became Ho Chi Minh City:

Let’s remember today the generation drafted to fight a war that we chose to lose.

Click to read:

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2026/05/the_week_it_became_ho_chi_minh_city.html

We remember Audrey Hepburn (1929-93)

Edda van Heemstra Hepburn-Ruston, a.k.a. Audrey Hepburn, was born in Belgium on this day in 1929.......she died in 1993..........a very elegant lady and movie star, from "Sabrina" to "Roman holiday".

P.S.  You can listen to my show.  If you like our posts, please look for ”Donate” on the right column of the blog page.

1970 and Kent State

We remember Kent State and the day that 100 National Guardsmen fired their rifles into a group of students, killing four and wounding 11.

It was very unfortunate.   In 1974, a federal court dropped all charges against eight Ohio National Guardsmen for their role in the students’ deaths.

P.S.  You can listen to my show.  If you like our posts, please look for ”Donate” on the right column of the blog page.

The death of Cleopatra and the movie with Elizabeth Taylor

We discussed the death of Cleopatra with Leslie Eastman and Barry Jacobsen.  

Of course, this is another anniversary of Elizabeth Taylor's role as Cleopatra in 1963.      Leslie has a link to a review of the movie.

I have not seen all of the Cleopatra movies but it's hard to top Elizabeth Taylor.

Click for our show:  The Battle of Actium and the Murder of Cleopatra.........click to listen.

 P.S.  Check out my blog for posts, podcasts and videos. If you like our posts, please look for ”Donate” on the right column of the blog page.

Listen to "The Battle of Actium and the Murder of Cleopatra" on Spreaker.

1956 and Gene Vincent's "Be Bop A Lula"

Gene Vincent recorded this rock classic today in 1956......it sounded a lot like Elvis and sold 2 million copies.....

BE BOP A LULA 

 "Well be-bop-a-lula she's my baby, Be-bop-a-lula I don't mean maybe. 

Be-bop-a-lula she's my baby Be-bop-a-lula I don't mean maybe 

Be-bop-a-lula she's my baby love, My baby love, my baby love. 

 Well she's the girl in the red blue jeans. She's the queen of all the teens. 

She's the one that I know She's the one that loves me so. Say be-bop-a-lula she's my baby, 

Be-bop-a-lula I don't mean maybe. Be-bop-a-lula she's my baby 

Be-bop-a-lula I don't mean maybe Be-bop-a-lula she's my baby love, My baby love, my baby love. 

 Well she's the one that gots that beat. She's the one with the flyin' feet. 

She's the one that walks around the store. She's the one that gets more more more. 

 Be-bop-a-lula she's my baby, Be-bop-a-lula I don't mean maybe. 

Be-bop-a-lula she's my baby Be-bop-a-lula I don't mean maybe 

Be-bop-a-lula she's my baby love, My baby love, my baby love...."

P.S.  You can listen to my show.  If you like our posts, please look for ”Donate” on the right column of the blog page.