Cinco de Mayo: What Comes to Mind?

As you get ready to drink your margarita, wear your sombrero and hit that piñata this Cinco de Mayo, consider first what it is exactly that you are celebrating. Or not celebrating.

While Mexicans in their native country don’t generally recognize the Cinco de Mayo holiday, partygoers in the United States have turned the date into a large festivity. The reasons for the American celebration have more to do with the U.S. Latino culture and alcohol than with history.


Cinco de Mayo marks the 1862 Battle of Puebla, where Mexican forces defeated the French army. General Ignacio Zaragoza led the Mexican troops to win despite the more numerous and better equipped French forces of Napoleon III.

The victory in Puebla is a good reason to celebrate, but Mexico ultimately lost the war against the French and one of Napoleon’s relatives, Maximilian of Austria, was left to rule Mexico from 1864 to 1867. This may be the reason why Cinco de Mayo goes largely unnoticed south of the border, except in the state of Puebla where the battle took place.
In the United States, Cinco de Mayo also made its first appearance during the 1860s. Mexicans in San Francisco lent their support to their mother country during the war by commemorating the date of the battle with private dances and speeches that addressed the significance of the day. The celebration continued with dances and parades until the 1950s.

During the civil rights movement of the 1960s and 70s, Cinco de Mayo evolved into a tool for recognition of the Chicano culture. To Chicano activists, the Battle of Puebla symbolized perseverance and unity, and they saw the holiday as a way to build pride among Mexican Americans and celebrate their bicultural identity.

Unfortunately beer companies trumped the fight for civil rights and the original intentions to promote Latino culture. Cinco de Mayo as we know it in the United States today is the result of an exploitation of Mexican history on the part of the alcohol industry.

In his book Anything but Mexican, Rodolfo Acuña discusses how a minor holiday became the opportunity for brewers to “make alcohol a staple of Latino social life.” The Molson Coors Brewing Co. needed to save its image and market to Latinos after a group of Mexican-American activists complained about the company’s discriminatory hiring practices in the 1960s. Chicanos, on the other hand, needed funds to launch their Cinco de Mayo celebration. To silence the Chicano opposition, Coors sponsored their holiday with millions of dollars in “donations.” In exchange, Cinco de Mayo had to promote beer drinking.

Another deal in 1985 involved Mexican American organizations--the National Council of La Raza, the League of United Latin American Citizens and the American GI Forum. The organizations withdrew a boycott against Coors’ labor practices when the brewing company promised them $350 million. This growing dependence on beer companies has offset the Latino efforts for civil rights.
Latinos should celebrate their culture and heritage but not at the expense of neglecting the roots of their holidays and propagating negative drinking stereotypes. So before you get out those green, white and red streamers, think about what it really means to be Mexican, Mexican-American or Latino, or at least take some time to genuinely learn about these cultures.