Here it is again! It was a surprising as the Kentucky Derby’s arrival yesterday, and a group celebration of a classic event for the Bluegrass state. We had thought the event was long past, but it was not. The nose-to-nose-to nose finish was as exciting as anything we have seen, and that was a perfect lead in to the realization that today is the 5th of May- “Cinco de Mayo!”
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This is an annual event originally celebrated- modestly- in a nation that used to be south of ours. The Border’s location has changed of late, inexorably north, and the holidays of Mexico have become entwined in ours. They even collide in a new one, which in this year combines the Derby-Day-Drinking event with the All-Day-Celebration of Cinco De Mayo.

We started early, having been awake a few times in the hours of darkness purging the residue of the Derby with preparations to celebrate Mexico’s victory over the invading forces of the Second French Empire in 1861. At the time, we Americans were a little pre-occupied with that Civil War thing. We had already been at war in Mexico in 1848, so it passed without much notice here. It ws obscured with the clouds of black powder smoke that issued from Bull Run, just a single day’s march west of our home here by the parking lot at Big Pink.

In case the memory is dim, here is the story in brief. The French saw an opportunity to recreate their vanquished possessions in what became the United States and Canada. They thought the Mexicans would be easier prey, and landed with the troops to enforce the dream of a renewed empire in North America.

(Martial but intellectual visage of ‘GRAL” Ignacio Zaragoza, 1861, Courtesy Alchetron Free Social Encyclopedia).

General Ignacio Zaragoza was subject to the first toast of the full weekend of celebratory quaffing. He led the doughty Mexicans against the French forces at the “Battle of Puebla.” He was victorious in that encounter, which is why we recall it this morning, and placed the Monkey Shoulder and Julips of yesterday with the Tequila of today. Ignacio’s moment of triumph is worth remembering since things did not progress as well as he hoped.

Zaragoza died months after the battle from an unspecified camp-related illness. A larger French force ultimately defeated his successor in charge of the Mexican army at the “Second Battle” fought in the same place as the First one. It was a successful start, that included conquest of Mexico City. But it was not to last. With the conclusion of the American carnage further north and a vast combat-experienced Army and Navy available for deployment, things did not work out much better for the French than it did for Ignatio.

In January 1866, the third fellow named Napoleon (N-III) announced that he would withdraw French troops from Mexico. In reply to his request for American neutrality, Secretary of State William Seward decreed the French flight from the hemisphere would be “unconditional.”

You can see the ambiguity inherent in the celebration, which is now more popular north of the moving border than it is to the south. It is now regarded as a holiday devoted not only to consumption of beverages in groups like this one, but as a larger commemoration of Mexican-American culture. That version of the holiday goes back to Columbia in 1862. Not the one in Latin America, but in Columbia. California.

It was small scale back then, and re-emerged as a major festive occasion in he 1980s. We vaguely remember the emergence due to advertising campaigns by beer, wine, and tequila companies. On this day, Cinco de Mayo generates beer sales on a par with that of the Super Bowl. Down South? It is solemn and relatively low-key with mostly ceremonial military parades or reenactments in the city of Puebla.

In case you missed it, this is not Mexico’s Independence Day, widely regarded by actual Mexicans as the most important national Holiday. That is in September, and we plan on going to the liquor store between now and then to ensure we do not run short. But we are set for today, and hope this brief account gives some context for a day that has become an increasingly global celebration of Mexican culture, cuisine and heritage.

Except in France, of course. They are still restive there. President Macron in Paris recently floated the idea of landing troops in Ukraine, but we do not plan on stocking up for that one. At least not yet. And in the meantime? Pass that jug in this direction, would ‘ya?

Copyright 2024 Vic Socotra
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