“People believe it’s the Mexican Independence Day, but it’s not. [It’s] the Battle del Pueblo,” Javier Hernandez, 20, political science major, said. “It’s frustrating to hear people [say] ‘oh! It’s Cinco de Mayo, let’s go get drunk!’”
Cinco De Mayo is a cultural holiday in America, marked by parades and various other events held annually to celebrate Mexican heritage.
Hernandez said that many on campus believe the tradition behind Cinco de Mayo is the Mexican Fourth of July and use it as an excuse to party. Modern holiday advertisements, he added, spread a negative ethnic stereotype.
“It shows what you think about Mexicans,” he said. “Oh, like we just get drunk all the time?”
Journalism and political science professor Rosa Santana agreed with Hernandez’s sentiment. She said that the day had become a primarily consumer event that misrepresented its cultural significance.
“I find that it is observed by people who want to push the sense of Mexico being just a country that is always looking for an excuse to party,” she said. “Cinco de Mayo is about a ragtag Mexican force that defeated a very sophisticated French army.”
May 5 marks the 147th anniversary of the Mexican militia’s victory over a better-equipped French army at the Battle of Puebla, a state in Mexico. General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín, who was born in what is now Goliad, Texas, defeated a French army of around 6,000, including mounted cavalry, according to the History Channel website, history.com.
Santana said it is “depressing” to see that these David and Goliath stories have been belittled in favor of drunken partying. Stories of men who triumphed in the face of a well-trained, better-financed, imperialist force twice its size and whose celebration of courage and virtue in defending their country have now been replaced by a hyper-commercialized day to drink beer and eat tacos, she said.
Santana compared the Mexican fight against a bigger, more sophisticated, imperialistic French force to the American fight independence from the English.
“Cinco de Mayo commemorates the Mexican people’s courage, bravery and national pride. America can relate to the patriotic strife of another country, fighting off a larger oppressing force,” she said. But now, she said, the holiday is seen as just another big party day, and a blanket excuse for binge drinking.
“In general folks who were raised in this country don’t have a lot of knowledge and who don’t understand the complexity of Mexican culture,” Santana said. “Many don’t know the history of this or any other countries, and Mexico’s is particularly important because it contributed so much to this nation.”
Andi Valenzuela, 20, co-chair of campus club Improving Dreams of Equality Access and Success, said she was frustrated with the misconception of the day, but that it was not all bad.
“I work at Olvera Street and we make a lot of money those days from people, a lot who aren’t even Latinos,” Valenzuela said.
In Mexico, she said, the holiday is known but not as widely celebrated as it is here in the United States.
Santana said that commercialization of Cinco de Mayo serves to downplay its historic significance and thus destroys important cultural heritage. She said it should not be just another occasion for beer companies to use for higher profits.
Frank Cardenas
Online Editor
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All I know is that every Mexican I talk to doesnt even know what Cinco de Mayo is about. I think its funny that they wave the flag of a country that treated their family so bad, that their family risked their life to cross the border and escape the goverment that threaten their life. Ya, … lets give honor to that. We should not celebrate the Cinco de Mayo, we should celebrate viente y cinco de Mayo! Viva Estados Unidos!
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