The battle also played a role in the American Civil War. Incredibly, Mexico claimed victory by the evening, and Juárez declared May 5 a national holiday. On May 5, 1862, in a small town in east-central Mexico called Puebla, 2,000 Mexican soldiers faced 6,000 French troops at daybreak. The French sent troops to force Mexico's President Benito Juárez and the government out of Veracruz. 16, 1810, when the country broke free of Spanish rule.Ĭinco de Mayo came more than 50 years later when French Emperor Napoleon III wanted to claim Mexico for himself. Mexican Independence Day, or Día de la Independencia, came on Sept. We should have Cinco de Mayo events that go beyond partying and drinking, where we call attention to what the history is." So what does Cinco de Mayo celebrate? "It's OK for people to go out and have a good time on a holiday like Cinco de Mayo - at least they have some sense that it's some kind of a Mexican holiday," García said. "Everyone thinks that it's just party time, it's Corona time," said Mario García, a Chicanx historian from the University of California at Santa Barbara. Many who think they know what Cinco de Mayo is about wrongly assume it's Mexico's Independence Day. Cinco de Mayo marks Mexico's against-all-odds victory against invading French troops in 1862.īut to some Americans, it's simply Cinco de Drinko, an excuse to party with little to no understanding of what the Mexican holiday celebrates.
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