Cinco de Mayo is celebrated throughout the United States as a day filled with chips and salsa, margaritas, and tacos, but what is the real meaning behind the holiday?
Mexican President Benito Juárez declared May 5 a national holiday after Mexican soldiers defeated French Emperor Napoleon III and his troops on May 5, 1862 in the Battle of Puebla.
Many people confuse Cinco de Mayo with Día de la Independencia, Mexican Independence Day, which is actually on September 16.
"The day, mostly commemorated by Mexican Americans north of the U.S. border, is also celebrated in Puebla, the town and region southeast of Mexico City, where the holiday originated," according to The New York Times.
Mario García, a Chicanx historian from UC Santa Barbara, told USA Today how Mexican Americans were the first to truly celebrate Cinco de Mayo and it started to become popular during the Chicano Movement in the 1960s, before the mass commercialization of the holiday started to take place in the 1980s.
"It becomes a Chicano holiday, in many ways, linked to the Chicano movement, because we discover Mexicans resisting a foreign invader," García said. "They link the struggle of the Chicano movement to Cinco de Mayo."
Irene Vásquez, department chair of Chicano and Chicana Studies at the University of New Mexico, also spoke to USA Today about the importance of Cinco de Mayo in Mexican culture.
"It's more about having a good time, having a good party and celebrating over beer and wine," Vásquez said. "That does overshadow, in a way, the people's memory of what Cinco De Mayo represents. However, the people's memory of Cinco de Mayo does survive.
"It's important for people to understand that this is a day when Mexican people can celebrate with peoples of all different ethnicities the importance of history, of heritage, of culture and that we all have a place in the society."
There are historical traditions such as parades and recreations of the Battle of Puebla that take place on Cinco de Mayo in Mexico. Although, because the day is not a federal holiday, Jessica Lavariega Monforti, the vice provost at California State University, Channel Islands, said it's celebrated differently in the country.
"For many Mexicans, however, May 5 is a day like any other. It is not a federal holiday, so offices, banks and stores remain open," Dr. Lavariega Monforti said.
Dr. Lavariega Monforti went on to add that large celebrations throughout major cities in the United States show how commercialized the holiday as become.
"It seems that these efforts are direct responses to the consumerism surrounding Cinco de Mayo, and the commercialization of Latino culture in the United States," Dr. Lavariega Monforti said.
Vásquez went on to send a similar message, saying that the importance of Cinco de Mayo has been lost amid the celebrations.
"There is this very subversive element to Cinco de Mayo, and that is one of anti-colonialism, anti-imperialism, self-determination and autonomy of Mexican peoples. But that message is buried in all the fanfare, the drinking, the decorations, the dancing," Vásquez said. "We need to understand what Cinco de Mayo means to our community, and convey that to younger generations, because it is about strength and solidarity."
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