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Cinco de Mayo

Date 5/1/2003 12:00 AM | Topic: Features

Sabor Latino should be busy this coming Monday. The Postville Mexican restaurant will be hosting Cinco de Mayo, a Mexican holiday celebrated more here in the States than in Mexico.


Cinco de Mayo is a date of great importance to both the Mexican and the Chicano communities. It marks Mexico's independence from the outstretching hand of Napoleon in France. Sometimes compared to the United States' Fourth of July, Cinco de Mayo does not celebrate Mexico's independence from Spain as many believe, according to Vicki Peterson, Spanish teacher and court interpreter from Lancaster, Wis.

According to latino.sscnet.edu, the origins of Cinco de Mayo began with the aftermath of the Mexican-American War in 1846-48. The country's debt built up in the devastated nation. On July 17, 1861, President Benito Jaurez issued a moratorium in which all foreign debt payments would be suspended for a brief period of two years, with the promise that after this period, payments would resume.

Mexico was in debt to England, Spain and France. None of the countries were pleased with this arrangement so they all proceeded to invade Mexico and recover their payments by "whatever means necessary." The Spanish and English armies eventually withdrew, but the French refused to leave with the intention to create an empire in Mexico under Napoleon III.


Napoleon III believed that if the United States was allowed to prosper indiscriminately, it would eventually become "a power in and of itself." To prevent this, he put Maximilian on the throne with his wife Carlotta.

The appointment of emperor Maximilian was not altogether a bad thing. Peterson said he did many good things to get Mexico back on its feet. He cleaned up the streets. Cities were organized, sanitation improved and lighting was added.

With the installment of Maximilian, President Juarez fled north. His loyalist troops did manage to keep the French at bay long enough to prevent them from supporting the Confederate states in the U.S. Civil War.

Lincoln soon ordered the French out of Mexico and sent a military force to the Texas/Mexican border under General Phil Sheridan. Napoleon potentially faced 2 million battle-hardened U.S. veterans if he persisted in the occupation of Mexico. In early 1867, Napoleon made the decision to withdraw his troops. Maximilian surrendered his Mexican Imperial Army on May 15. He and his wife were both killed. The sovereignty of Mexico was returned to the Mexicans.

So, if Cinco de Mayo really celebrates the victory of Mexico in the battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, then what is Mexico's Independence Day? According to latino.sscnet.edu it is September 16, 1810. On that day, Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla issued a proclamation that united many different local rebellions into one cohesive struggle, which eventually led to Mexico's actual independence from Spain in 1821.

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Chips Staff
News Editor

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