April 30, 1999
By Conde, David
The coming Cinco de Mayo festival is a time of fun and enjoyment. It is important, however, to know this is not just another holiday to be enjoyed and forgotten. It would also be nice to take the time to find what it is we are celebrating. We might even do a little reading about the history of the holiday both in Mexico and here.
Cinco de Mayo is about standing up to tyranny. The Chicano Movement of 1965 saw this event in Mexican history as the most representative of the struggle for liberation and community self-determination.
To be sure, Cinco de Mayo is more a military and less a civilian holiday in Mexico. It is celebrated with special flag raising ceremonies by the different military bases in that country. The meaning the Chicano brings to the Cinco is encompassed in other celebrations in Mexico, such as November 20th, which represents the beginning of the Mexican Revolution of 1910.
For the Chicano, as for the Mexican Benito Juárez, the only full-blooded Indian president of Mexico, is revered for his stubborn refusal to give one inch of land left in his care to the foreign aggressor.
Juárez, the little Zapotec leader was the only one who stood between Napoleon III and his ambition to have an empire in America. Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, nephew of Napoleon I, won the presidency of the French republic in 1848 Four years later in 1852, a French Plebiscite granted the president the title of Emperor Napoleon III.
His election to the throne of France set the stage for Napoleon III to attempt to reincarnate France's lost empire by coming to the aid of the Catholic Church and the Conservatives in Mexico.
The French came to Puebla, the most Catholic of all Mexican cities, on May 5, 1862. Urged by the clergy of Puebla, General Charles Laetrile and his French troops were promised a great welcome and a special Te Dewm mass once they reached the city. That was not to be.
Nobody had consulated Benito Juárez, Mexico's President, about the kind of welcome planned for the French. Juárez has assigned the defense of the city to General Ignacio Zaragoza. Encountering unexpected opposition on the morning of May 5th, Laetrile attacked recklessly, and within two hours the French has used half of their ammunition.
The day was carried by a young Brigadier General, Porfirio Díaz, commanding the Second Brigade. He was able to repel the French assault on Zaragoza's right flank. The dejected invaders, many veterans of the Crimean War, retreated to lick their wounds in Orizaba. It took Juárez five more years to totally defeat the French and restore Mexico's independence.
So when we celebrate Cinco de Mayo, think about it as a valuable lesson in the struggle for dignity and self-determination. It is a statement of belief in our destiny as a great people. It also enriches our nation and is a rallying point for those who seek to root out tyranny in our midst, no matter where it originates.
(Reprinted from "La Voz de Colorado," Vol. XXIII, No. 18, April 30, 1997)
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