Hello all you gorgeous Hattingdonians! It’s fiesta time. And here’s why. It’s the Fifth of May — Cinco de Mayo. Of course, you all know what this is. As you can see, Hattingdon has donned her Fiesta hat. ¡Vámonos de fiesta!
About Cinco de Mayo
Did you know . . . ?
• Cinco de Mayo, (Spanish: “Fifth of May”), also called Anniversary of the Battle of Puebla, holiday celebrated in parts of Mexico and the United States.
• When in 1861 Mexico declared a temporary moratorium on the repayment of foreign debts, English, Spanish, and French troops invaded the country. By April 1862 the English and Spanish had withdrawn, but the French, with the support of wealthy landowners, remained in an attempt to establish a monarchy under Maximilian of Austria and to curb U.S. power in North America.
• The date commemorates an outnumbered — 2,000 to 6,000 — Mexican army’s 1862 victory over the French forces of Napoleon III. at the Battle of Puebla during the Franco-Mexican War.
• A Texan led those outnumbered troops in Puebla. Ignacio Zaragoza SeguÍn, a 33-year-old officer from the Goliad area, was Mexico’s minister of war and navy and was assigned to lead the Army of the East and the defense of Puebla.
• The U.S. has celebrated Cinco de Mayo since the end of the Franco-Mexico and U.S. civil wars.
• In the beginning, Latinos in California and the other parts of the U.S. celebrated Cinco de Mayo with parades in which people dressed in Civil War uniforms and gave speeches on the Battle of Puebla.
• The date is embraced more generally in the same way as other ethnic celebrations such as St. Patrick’s Day, Mardi Gras and Octoberfest.
• Cinco de Mayo isn’t Mexico’s Independence Day. Mexico’s equivalent of the Fourth of July is 16 de Septiembre (September 16). In many parts of Mexico, Cinco de Mayo is a work day.
See you again soon. Love ya!
©Vivian J. Grant.
Hattingdon 