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I detest Cinco de Mayo and what it has become.
A few days ago, I saw my first Cinco de Mayo ad of the season -- a beer bottle with "Cinco de Mayo" emblazoned across it.
Other ads urge us to celebrate the holiday by eating tacos and drinking margaritas. Processed food manufacturers advertise "Cinco de Mayo recipes." I even saw instructions for a "Cinco de Mayo sombrero cake"! Cinco de Mayo has become one big party. And it angers me.
I don't have anything against having fun. But, as a historian, I am enraged at the ways that corporations distort history in order to sell something. In this case, binge drinking, partying and food.
May 5 should be celebrated for what is truly represents rather than for what corporations want us to believe it stands for.
On May 5, 1862, about 4,000 Mexicans confronted more than 6,000 well-trained and well-equipped French troops. The French, under Napoleon III, hoped to make Mexico part of its empire. Mexico, weakened by its loss of territory to the United States in the 1840s and attempting to stabilize itself, had suspended payment of foreign debts for two years. This gave France the justification for invading Mexico.
The Mexican troops, many of them indigenous and rural people from the Puebla region, primarily armed only with antiquated weapons and machetes, won a battle against invading French troops. The victory was short-lived and the French eventually occupied Mexico, installing Maximilian as emperor of the country in 1864.
Yet, in defending their land, Mexico's poor people provided inspiration for generations to come.
Sadly, almost, a century and a half later, we have all but forgotten the Zacapoaxtlan people and their courage and their sacrifices. Instead, big business has replaced those memories and erased history with promises of beer and nachos.
This year, let's stop celebrating in the way that we have become accustomed. Let's put the beer bottle down, say no to wearing a sombrero and take history back.
Yolanda Chavez Leyva is a historian specializing in Mexican American history. She wrote this for Progressive Media Project.This article was distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services
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