Cinco de Mayo

(May 5, 2013) Today is Cinco de Mayo, Spanish for "fifth of May." It is celebrated in the United States and regionally in Mexico, primarily in the state of Puebla, where the holiday is called El Día de la Batalla de Puebla ("The Day of the Battle of Puebla"). It originated with Mexican-American communities in the American West as a way to commemorate the cause of freedom and democracy during the first years of the American Civil War, and today the date is observed in the United States as a celebration of Mexican heritage and pride. People celebrate primarily with Mexican food and music.

In Puebla, the date is observed to commemorate the Mexican army's unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, under the leadership of Gen. Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín.

Cinco de Mayo has its roots in the French occupation of Mexico, which took place in the aftermath of the Mexican-American War of 1846-48, the Mexican Civil War of 1858 and the 1860 Reform Wars. These wars left the Mexican Treasury nearly bankrupt. On July 17, 1861, Mexican President Benito Juárez issued a moratorium in which all foreign debt payments would be suspended for two years.

In response, France, Britain and Spain sent naval forces to Veracruz to demand reimbursement. Britain and Spain negotiated with Mexico and withdrew, but France, at the time ruled by Napoleon III, decided to use the opportunity to establish a Latin empire in Mexico that would favor French interests. Late in 1861, a well-armed French fleet stormed Veracruz, landing a large French force and driving Juárez and his government into retreat. Moving on from Veracruz toward Mexico City, the French army encountered heavy resistance from the Mexicans near Puebla, at the Mexican forts of Loreto and Guadalupe. The 8,000-strong French army attacked the much smaller and poorly equipped Mexican army of 4,500. Yet, on May 5, 1862, the Mexicans managed to decisively crush the French army, then considered "the premier army in the world."

Since the Battle of Puebla, no country in the Americas has been invaded by any other European military force.

Some historians have argued that France's real goal was to help break up the American Union, at the time in the midst of a civil war, by helping the southern Confederacy. The Mexicans had won a great victory that kept Napoleon III from supplying the Confederate rebels for another year, allowing the United States to build a powerful army. This grand army smashed the Confederates at Vicksburg and Gettysburg just 14 months after the battle of Puebla, essentially ending the Civil War. The Mexican victory on Cinco de Mayo denied Napoleon III the opportunity to resupply the Confederate rebels for another year.

Cinco de Mayo is not Mexico's Independence Day — the most important national patriotic holiday in Mexico — which is celebrated on Sept. 16.

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