Most people know that today is Cinco de Mayo, but not everyone is clear what this holiday is about. Contrary to what a lot of people think (and what many news stations will report), Cinco de Mayo is
not Mexican Independence Day -- that would be Dieciseis de Septiembre (September 16). Cinco de Mayo is the anniversary of the
Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862 when an invading French army was defeated one hundred miles east of Mexico City. Cinco de Mayo is more of a holiday in the United States than Mexico, which is appropriate in my opinion.
Cinco de Mayo became widely celebrated north of the border during the 1960s, during the Chicano Movimiento. A radical interpretation of the holiday is that it celebrates a victory of indigenous and mestizo people over European invaders. (At the time, Mexico's president was Benito Juárez, its first
indio president.) A less confrontational interpretation is that it celebrates the power of a united people against a better financed and technologically superior foe. Cinco de Mayo has lost a lot of its original meaning as beer companies try to turn it into the Mexican St. Patrick's Day (I'll bet a lot of Irish-Americans don't care for what the beer companies have done with their holiday either) but it has also become, for better or worse, the cultural day for Chicanos and other north of the border Latinos.
The Battle of Puebla also has significance in U.S. history. May 1862, of course, was early in the Civil War, and one of the South's fond hopes was an alliance with the French. Although the Battle of Puebla did not stop France's imperial adventure in Mexico, Mexican resistance prevented the French from moving north to Texas and establishing a united front with the Confederacy against Lincoln and Juárez.
So to me, the main message of the Battle of Puebla and the Cinco de Mayo holiday is that from the perspective of the USA, Mexico is not just another foreign country. It is a neighbor, and the destinies of the two countries have been and will always be linked.