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Benito Juárez
best
in the world, but its overconfident commander, the Count of
Lorencez, underestimated his less numerous opponents (the
French outnumbered the Mexicans two to one). The weather also
favored the Mexicans, since heavy rain had turned the roads
muddy, thus slowing the advance of the French artillery. Lorencez,
assuming the Mexicans would flee from heavy fighting, directed
three charges at the center of their line; all were repulsed.
The Mexican army
was led by Gen. Ignacio Zaragoza and Col. Porfirio Díaz
(who would later become president). Zaragoza sent Díaz
and his cavalry to meet a French flanking army, and the French
cavalry followed, leaving their infantry alone in the center.
In an ingenious counteroffensive, Zaragoza sent stampeding
cattle ahead of his infantry (machete-wielding Zapotec and
mestizo Indians) to break up the
French lines, to great effect. The French army withdrew at
darkness and waited two days for a
Mexican
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offensive that never came; Zaragoza was loath to encounter
the French in the open, where his defenses could not protect
him. Faced with inclement weather and unwilling to mount another
attack, Lorencez withdrew his forces to Orizaba.
While the victory
at Puebla was important for Mexico’s morale, it was
not decisive; the French went on to capture Mexico City and
installed the Hapsburg prince Maximilian I in 1863. Maximilian
did not arrive in Mexico until May of 1864, and even then
his regime was not recognized by Juárez’s liberal
government. Many Mexicans (known as Republicans) continued
to fight the French forces throughout Maximilian’s brief
reign. When the American Civil War ended in 1865, the United
States began supplying the Republicans with arms. In 1866,
due to Mexican resistance and American opposition, Napoleon
III withdrew his troops and urged Maximilian to abdicate.
Maximilian refused, was captured on May 11, 1867, and sentenced
to death by firing squad.
WHY AMERICA CELEBRATES CINCO DE MAYO
The popularization
of Cinco de Mayo did not happen overnight; rather, “it
was a gradual process that one scholar suggests began in the
United States” shortly after the Battle of Puebla. Mexicans
living in California (northern Mexico at the time) celebrated
the anniversary of the battle as a way of showing solidarity
with their mother country.
Researcher Laurie
Kay Sommers has broken the evolution of the holiday into three
distinct stages. In the first phase—which lasted into
the 1950s—Mexican civic and social clubs organized private
folklórico dances, speeches
on the significance of the event, and parades. These celebrations
were celebrated locally within a city’s Mexican American
communities.
The second phase
came with the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s and 1970s.
American Latinos, inspired by the struggles of African Americans,
began to demand equality for themselves in all areas of life.
This growing self-awareness grew into the Chicano movement,
“an effort by Mexican Americans to reembrace their indigenous
roots.” Cinco de Mayo was a perfect example of Chicano
pride, and it fit well with the growing impetus to incorporate
multicultural subjects into academic curricula. Cinco de Mayo
gained more academic air time in 1968 with the passage of
the Bilingual Education Act, which “dramatically increased
federal funding for multicultural curricula.”
The final phase
in Cinco de Mayo’s evolution came in the 1980s, when
some American corporations began looking at the growing number
of Hispanic consumers and considered how to appeal to them.
Many Cinco de Mayo celebrations were celebrated by community-based
organizations that welcomed corporate financing to help underwrite
their events. In exchange for this financing, businesses got
visibility and a positive image among Latino consumers. Once
local marketing campaigns went national, Cinco de Mayo became
an American holiday.
Source: Valerie Menard, The Latino Holiday Book
(2004), Wikipedia.
Excerpts from Valerie Menard’s book. |
