W
HAT IS
Cinco de Mayo
Many people have been led to believe that “Cinco De Mayo” is Mexican Independence Day. That is far from the truth. Cinco de Mayo (Spanish: “Fifth of May”) is a celebration held to commemorate the Battle of Puebla and is celebrates in parts of Mexico and the United States in honor of a military victory in 1862 over the French forces of Napoleon III.
The History of Cinco de Mayo
The year was 1861. The Mexican President Benito Juarez had stopped making interest payments to Mexico’s creditors. While England and Mexico worked diplomatically to resolve the situation, France would not be compelled to do the same. As a result, the emperor at the time, Napoleon III decided to invade Mexico and force the country to pay its debts. At the time, the invasion was a clear violation of a long-standing doctrine- the United States’ Monroe Doctrine. The doctrine stated that any attempts by the European Nations to colonize or interfere with states in the Americas would be viewed as an act of aggression. At the time, the United States was dealing with civil war, which meant that Mexico would have to deal with its issues. The first invasion into Mexico by France was a success, and the French forces began making plans to move steadily towards the Mexico capital, Mexico City defeating any
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resistance that stood in their way. That was until early May 1862. This was when the French forces reached the city of Puebla.
The battle of Puebla
The French force was very confident of success. Thus, 6,000 French troops under the command of General Charles Latrille de Lorencez set out to attack Puebla de Los Angeles. This was a small town in eastcentral Mexico. Determined to defend his territory, from his new headquarters in the North, Juarez rounded up about 2,000 loyal men, most of them indigenous Mexicans or of mixed ancestry, and sent them to battle at Puebla. Even though the French forces outnumbered the Mexican armies at Puebla 2-to-1, the Mexican troops under the command of a Texas-born General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguin, managed to defeat the French army on May 5. This victory against the French military is what is celebrated today as Cinco de Mayo. While the Mexican army defeated the French army at Puebla, the victory didn’t stop France’s progress towards Mexico City. In 1864, with the support of Mexico Roman Catholic clergy and the conservative upper Class, France overtook Mexico City, setting Emperor Maximilian I on the throne. When the United States civil war ended, the US began pressuring France to pull out of Mexico. This pressure from the US and
THE POWER IS NOW MAGAZINE | APRIL 2020
