Why I Don't Celebrate Cinco de Mayo by:Dave Mundy
The e-mail showed up in my inbox, a greeting from one of the forums I participate in
. urging me to join in the fun and come celebrate Cinco de Mayo with them.
Argumentative type that I am, I had to respond with the observation that I have no reason whatsoever to celebrate a victory by one foreign army over another foreign army in a battle fought on foreign soil in a war which the battle's victor wound up losing. I'll admire the victorious army of the Battle of Puebla and certainly its commanders for their tactical brilliance in the face of overwhelming odds - but I won't run around waving Mexican flags and drinking Mexican beer and acting like May the Fifth is any kind of cultural event, because it isn't.
Cinco de Mayo isn't even a Mexican holiday in Mexico, for cryin' out loud. Cinco de Mayo is a commercial invention by retailers and alcohol manufacturers, an attempt to create a "Hispanic" holiday and cash in on Political Correctness by making us feel guilty about not having an official "Hispanic" holiday.
Cinco de Mayo commemorates the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, and a victory by a rag-tag, outnumbered Mexican army over an invading French army. The French went on to win the war anyway and established a puppet "empire" in Mexico for a time before the post-Civil War United States began lending aid to Mexican revolutionaries who eventually ousted the French.
The date is celebrated as a minor holiday in some areas of Mexico, especially in the central state of Puebla where the battle took place, but nowhere in Mexico is the day a "holiday" on the scale it is observed in the U.S.
I would be equally perturbed, I might add, if we began to celebrate Dien Bien Phu Day, or Algiers Day, or Waterloo Day. Everybody beats the French in battle -- it's not that big a deal.
My response to the e-mail was typical of the response I normally get: hey, it's a great excuse to drink beer while we celebrate and embrace diversity, it's just like St. Patrick's Day, I shouldn't be so insensitive and should welcome different cultures, et cetera.
They're right, St. Patrick's Day is every bit the same kind of ethnic stereotyping - Irish are drunks, let's drink green beer on St. Paddy's Day - by commercial interests. I love beer, but I don't celebrate that day, either.
It's all well and good to celebrate the many different cultures which make up our land, but I think it's important to celebrate those cultural heritages with respect. Here in Texas, for example, a lot of people miss out on a day I consider very significant, Juneteenth - a state holiday which commemorates the date the Emancipation Proclamation was finally available to slaves in Texas. Yeah, I may have a beer on that day, but the day is set aside to remember, not to get drunk and stereotype black culture.
Likewise, I have no quarrel with the celebration of Kwanzaa - even though it's another holiday of artificial origins, it at least tries to instill positive social values taken from the African influence on our common culture. The various Jewish and Christian holidays have a similar place in our holiday pantheon.
I have this concern about our culture, you see - we go out of our way to embrace foreign holidays like Cinco de Mayo, but where are the Wal-Marts and the bars on April 21?
April 21, you see, is the date Texas won its independence - from Mexico -- and took its rightful place among the nations of the world. It's far more culturally and historically significant to the residents of Texas than is Cinco de Mayo or St. Patrick's Day. Why don't the TV stations set aside hours of coverage for Texas Independence Day events? Why don't LULAC and Jesse Jackson march in the San Jacinto Day parade, while all the stores are decked out in a Lone Star motif and all the bars order extra Shiner Bock and Lone Star beer?
Why is there a double standard when it comes to "embracing diversity?" Why are we willing to go out on a limb and act like we're Irish or Mexican or African, but we steadfastly refuse to embrace the aspects of our culture which could most significantly bind us together and meld all those different ethnic backgrounds into one?
Like many, my ancestry could probably be lumped under the term "mutt." I've done a little bit of hunting and discovered ties to the Buchan and MacGregor Clans in Scotland, some Irish roots, some highborn aristocratic Prussian roots, some commoner Welsh and English roots, some Cherokee roots and probably even some French ones.
But when people ask me what I am, I tell them. I'm a Texan. It's where I was born, it's where I live, and that is the culture which defines me. My Texas culture includes influences from the U.S., Mexico, Germany, Czechoslovakia, the British Isles, Africa, Viet Nam, India, Pakistan, China, Korea, Japan and Amerindian tribes from the Cherokee and Comanche to the Kiowa, Alabama, Coushatta, Tonkawa and more - but it is unique because it blends all those influences into something which is greater than any of the individual parts.
Embrace MY diversity. Be a Texan.
About the author
Dave Mundy is a veteran of more than 20 years in the newspaper business and is currently working as a freelance writer, glamor photographer and online retailer. He is a former Marine and is active in the Texas nationalist movement.
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