Cinco de Mayo
Hello all, and welcome back to A
Different Opinion. Today, in honor of this special holiday, Cinco de Mayo, I
thought it would be appropriate for us to talk about what Cinco de Mayo is and
how this day became a holiday. Keep in mind that this will be an abridged
account of the events that led up to the Battle of Puebla and Cinco de Mayo, so
feel free to look up more information if this has interested you in the history
of this holiday. Let’s get started.
Now before I talk about what Cinco
de Mayo is, let’s talk about the historical background to this event. After the Texas War for Independence, the
United States of America wanted to annex Texas and create it into a state. The
United States couldn’t annex Texas not only because it would anger Mexico, but
because if they did, Texas would be a slave state and that would upset the
tense situation in Congress on the topic of slave states. It wasn’t until 1845
that Texas was actually annexed and this led to the Mexican-American War.
Mexico claimed that the border between Texas and Mexico was the Rio Nueces
while the United States claimed the Rio Grande as the border between Texas and
Mexico. This disagreement caused the Mexican-American War because at the time Manifest
Destiny was a sentiment shared by many of the politicians at the time. Manifest
Destiny was the belief that the United States was destined to expand from coast
to coast. President James K. Polk was an advocate for Manifest Destiny and
attempted to gain the Oregon territory from the British, but was unable to gain
all of it, settling for half.
So how did this lead up to Cinco de
Mayo? Well, I’m getting there. President Polk ordered troops to the Rio Grande
border in order to tempt Mexico into attacking the troops and giving Polk an
excuse to convince Congress to declare war on Mexico for “spilling American
blood on American soil” even though that land was disputed. This in turn caused
the Mexican-American War. Polk wanted to tempt Mexico into war so that the
United States could take the California and other territories.
After fighting for about a year,
the United States won the war and Mexico had to give the California territory
to the United States, and later Mexico would sell a small strip of land in the
Gadsden Purchase. After the Mexican-American War Mexico was broke and the
President/dictator at the time, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna decided to
sell the small strip of land to the United States so Mexico could have some
money; however, Santa Anna spent most of the money and was exiled from Mexico.
Let’s fast forward about 15 years. Benito Juarez became President, though Santa
Anna would not stay in exile for long. One of Juarez’s first acts as president
was to hold off payments to foreign countries. This angered the major creditors
of Mexico, France, Great Britain, and Spain. The three countries decided to unite
their efforts to get their money from Mexico by signing the Treaty of London in
1861. France, under Emperor Napoleon III, decided that invading Mexico and
conquering it would be a better decision than simply taking over Mexico’s
ports. Once Great Britain and Spain found out about this, they backed off and
withdrew their support.
France decided to appoint Archduke
Maximilian I of Austria as emperor of Mexico as a puppet monarch so that Mexico
could be properly under French control. Of course Mexico resisted these
attempts of the French to control them. French troops were retreating to the coast
and Mexican troops saw them and misunderstood the retreat, attacking the
French. Mexican troops were pushed back to Acultzingo Pass where the Mexicans
were defeated in a skirmish on April 28. The leader of the Mexican troops,
General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín, decided to retreat to the heavily fortified
city of Puebla. Here’s where things get better. On May 5, 1862 the leader of
the French troops, General Charles
de Lorencez, decided to attack the city because he believed that the
citizens of Puebla would be friendly to the French. He was wrong. Not only were
the citizens of Puebla against the French, but his attack would be useless because
of the fortifications of the city. As the French retreated from their final
assault, Zaragoza had his cavalry attack them from the right and left while
troops concealed along the road pivoted out to flank them badly. By 3 p.m. the
daily rains had started, making a slippery quagmire of the battlefield.
Lorencez withdrew to distant positions, counting 462 of his men killed against
only 83 of the Mexicans. He waited a couple of days for Zaragoza to attack
again, but Zaragoza held his ground. Lorencez then completely withdrew to
Orizaba.
This battle was a huge morale
booster for the Mexicans fighting against the French, and helped delay the
French winning the war. Ultimately the French managed to win the war, and
Mexico would be under French rule until 1867 when Maximilian was overthrown and
executed. The future president/dictator of Mexico, Porfirio Diaz, was fighting in this battle, and began to get national importance because of the role he played. Now that we’ve covered the history of the Battle of Puebla, how
important is the anniversary of the battle? On May 9, 1862 President Juarez
declared Cinco de Mayo to be a national holiday, and today schools are closed
in honor of this day, but most of the celebrations of the Battle of Puebla are mostly
centered in the state of Puebla and other regions, not the whole country. Many
misconceptions have arisen from the fact that it is a holiday in the United
States, such as some people believing Cinco de Mayo to be the Mexican
Independence day, which is September 16. In the US Cinco de Mayo is celebrated
in an attempt to show Mexican heritage, though many people tend to associate it
with Hispanic/Latin heritage. Cinco de Mayo was originally only celebrated by
Mexican immigrants or Mexican-Americans in the US during the American Civil
War. As my old AP World History teacher used to say, “Americans will celebrate
any holiday that lets them get drunk in the middle of the day without looking
bad.”
