At the blackboard: I will not write about Cinco de Mayo. I will not to write about Drinko de Mayo. I will not write about Stinko de Mayo. Cinco de Mayo is dead! Long live Cinco de Mayo!
As with most things Mexicans there is a myriad of dichotomies - depending on the angle from which you choose to view it - that have crystallized around Cinco de Mayo. It's a Mexican holiday most popular outside of Mexico. It's a holiday that celebrates a victorious battle in a war that was lost. It's a holiday that joins the holidays of other assimilated ethnicities (Oktoberfest, St. Patrick's Day) while Mexicans remain as "outsider" as they were since Mexico gave away the Southwest states after a U.S.-instigated war.
Let's review the facts. In 1862 Texas-born Mexican general Ignacio Zaragoza defeated the powerful French Army outside Puebla, near Mexico City. The French eventually won and installed a monarch to collect the debt Mexico owed. Mexican oligarchs threw out the French but developed a hard-core addiction to French architecture, fashion and pastries.
Here are the festivities around town: Ground Zero is Olvera Street. Hipster Ground Zero is the Echoplex. I'm impressed that YouTube's main page included a link to Los Cenzontles. And here's a site that brags it's "Your City. Your Guide." assuming Cinco de Mayo is Mexican Independence Day.
Thanks for indulging my refusal to write about Cinco de Mayo. I've learned my lesson.
Photo: Balloons outside a party store on Whittier Blvd. in East L.A.
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cant tell you how many times i got asked if i was going out drinking because it was cinco de mayo.
yep.
Yeah. Is any effort toward cultural education on Cinco worthless?
Your list of dichotomies is right on, and nicely captures the contradictions - thanks!
If you guys are so proud of this holiday, why don't you ALL go back where you belong and celibrate. We like you, but not nearly enough to have you here (breeding like cockroaches). Can't you guys take a hint?
WE ARE TAKING BACK WHAT IS RIGHTFULLY OURS SO WHY DONT YOU GO BACK TO EUROPE>
So I thought some vitriol was OK because this blog shouldn't totally isolate itself from the variety of opinions out there. It may be the person we bump into at Starbucks or our neighbor, after all. Now that we have a balance between someone who hates Mexicans and someone who hates Europeans, I think we can move on. If either of you use another form of writing, such as a sonnet or haiku to express your opinions, I may post them. Gracias.
- Adolfo