Cinco De Mayo

Cinco De Mayo, Spanish for May 5th, celebrates Mexico's unlikely victory over French forces in the Battle of Puebla in 1862. It is not Mexico's Independence Day, as many American's believe. That day is September 16th and is honestly a much bigger deal in Mexico. Cinco De Mayo isn't even a national holiday in Mexico, though kids do get the day off from school. Why is Cinco De Mayo important? Why do we celebrate it in the United States? Well, we have to go back a little ways.

Mexico had just been trounced by America in 1848 during the Mexican-American War, which basically gave us all of southwest America. Ten years later, Mexico would be split between Conservatives and Liberals on how the government would be run, resulting in a three year civil war. The Liberals came out on top, but then the Treasury didn't have any money due to the war, so the Mexican President, Benito Jaurez, decided to put a halt on paying foreign debt for two years. Sounds great for Mexico, right? Get some time to get their legs back under them and build the treasury back up! Well that didn't work for those countries that lent them the money and expected interest payments. France, Britain, and Spain decided that they would make an example out of Mexico and formed a coalition to get their money back, which included sending their naval armadas to Mexico. France was the big proponent to this whole thing, but it was less about the money they lent out, and more about the money they could make from invading Mexico and snatching up their resources. When Britain and Spain found out that France was planning to take Mexico for themselves, they quickly left the coalition and worked out a deal with Mexico. France was alone but still determined to take over Mexico.

France could not only use the plentiful silver mines in Mexico to build their riches, but also use the country as a foothold in Latin America. If they installed a puppet government in Mexico, they could use that to open up other Latin countries to trade. The best part was that the U.S. was now involved in their Civil War and would be too busy to help the Mexican government. The French, at the time one of the most formidable armies in the world, landed on the eastern coast of Mexico in Veracruz and easily drove out the Mexican forces. Slowly the French forces worked their way toward Mexico City and assured victory. The French forces met unsuspected heavy resistance close to Puebla and the 6,000 French troops attempted to crush the much smaller and poorly equipped 2,000 strong Mexican troops. To everyone's disbelief, the small Mexican force was able to decisively defeat the French forces. The Mexican army was able to stave off the French for another year, until the 30,000 strong French troops were finally able to push the Mexican forces from Mexico City and install their own government, led by Emperor Maximilian I, who was Austrian royalty that had agreed to help France conquer the Mexicans. The Mexican forces were still very active during the three year reign of Maximilian, using mostly guerrilla warfare. Maximilian ruled his puppet government from 1864 to 1867, which abruptly ended when he found himself in front of a firing squad. Where did it all go wrong? Things started to go downhill when America finished its Civil War and could more explicitly give aid to Mexico. Then, the French troops officially vacated Mexico in 1866. It was only a matter of time before the Mexican troops re-took Mexico City and had Maximilian put to death. Benito Jaurez, the Mexican President who decided to stop paying Mexico's debts was re-established as their ruler. Fun side note, this was the SECOND time France tried to force Mexico to pay its debts, the first being called the Pastry War, though that one only lasted a few months.

Going back to the Battle of Puebla, this was a huge deal at the time. Mexico was still very divided, but this victory gave the nation a lot of pride. The meager Mexican forces had trounced the well-organized French troops. Historians agree that the battle wasn't a huge strategic win in the overall war, it was a huge victory in terms of boosting the morale of Mexican troops. The win was important for another reason, and this had to do with the U.S. When France first invaded, the Union had a fear that if the French ran right over the Mexican troops, they could provide aid to the Confederacy. The fear was real, as this was exactly what France was planning on doing. This was early in the Civil War, when the Union was consistently being bested by the Confederacy. Thanks to the unlikely victory at Puebla, Mexican forces were able to keep France from taking power until 1864. By this time, the momentum was clearly with the Union forces and France decided not to aid the Confederacy. Had Mexico not won at Pueblo, our own war may have turned out much different. This is one of those great "what-ifs" of history, though many Americans don't even know anything about the background of Cinco De Mayo.

Cinco De Mayo celebrations came immediately to America in the 1860's, though they were completely confined to California for almost 100 years. Mexican miners in California started impromptu celebrations when they heard about the Mexican victory, and celebrations started every year to celebrate Mexican pride. It wasn't until the 1950's that the celebration spread to other parts of western America, thanks in large part to the Chicano Civil Rights Movement. The holiday truly grew in the 1980's when marketers, especially beer companies, capitalized on the celebratory nature of the day and began to promote it. It started as Mexican miners in California celebrating their country's victory in the 1860's to a generic celebration of Mexican culture and heritage. The holiday is huge in cities with large Mexican-American populations, but you can find celebrations basically everyone in America now. As stated before, in Mexico, this is "Battle of Puebla Day" and kids get a day off of school. The holiday is a much bigger deal in Puebla and Veracruz, where it is an official holiday, meaning everyone gets a day off. Cinco De Mayo is even celebrated in large cities around the world like Tokyo, Paris, and London, where they celebrate both American and Mexican culture.

Cinco De Mayo has become a day less about unlikely military victories and more about celebrating Mexico as a whole. Most celebrations boil down to going to a Mexican restaurant or making tacos at home. That's good enough for most people, and that's alright. For me, it's just fun to see why we have these holidays and why we are celebrating at all. That being said, I'm still going to get some Mexican food.

Day of the Dead

I've talked about All Hollows Eve and All Saints Day quite a bit in my Halloween post, but I've never mentioned the holiday that is basically those two wrapped into one sugar skull: Dia De Los Muertos, also known as the Day of the Dead. The Day of the Dead is celebrated every year on November 1st, corresponding with All Saints Day, and is primarily celebrated in Mexico. When people call this "Mexican Halloween," they are incorrect, as Mexicans, and others who celebrate the Day of the Dead, do take part in Halloween as well. The holiday focuses on the gathering of families and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. Sounds a little bit like the early celebrations of All Saints Day, right? Well it's a little different. Let me start off with the holidays origin.

Like Halloween, the Day of the Dead can be traced back to pagan beliefs. Like their European counterparts,  the indigenous culture had rituals honoring their ancestors. The difference is that in present day Latin America, they had a fixation with human remains. Skulls to be exact. The skulls of family members were kept as trophies and displayed during rituals to symbolize death and rebirth. The festival, according to the Aztec calender, kicked off in early August and lasted throughout the month. The festivities were also dedicated to the "Lady of the Dead," a goddess that corresponds with the modern Catrina. La Calvera Catrina (The Elegant Skull) was a 1910 etching by Jose Guadalupe Posada. It has become a staple image for the holiday, much like the Jack-O-Lantern for Halloween, or Santa Claus for Christmas.

In the modern day, the populace still celebrates their dead, but they don't carry around the skulls of their ancestors. Well, hopefully nobody does. The day is still very personal though. People go to their relative's grave-sites, clean them up a few days before November 1st, and when the day comes, they visit again bringing the deceased favorite things, like food and beverages, and even build private altars. People have also been known to bring photos of the person they are mourning, or memorabilia that belonged to them. This is all to encourage that relative's soul to visit you and you can have your time with them. It's all about honoring their dead and remembering them. I just don't feel like we have the same connection in our culture. How many of us go out of our way to visit our relative's graves and just chat with them for awhile, remembering them and maybe leaving them a few flowers? I may be wrong, but I think our culture is too busy for that sort of thing anymore.

Anyway, another tradition of the day is bringing an offering of some sort to your relative, which often includes orange Mexican marigolds called cempasuchil. The name is sometimes replaced with Flor de Muerto, which means Flower of the Dead. The flowers are thought to attract the souls to the offering. The offerings vary depending on what age the dead relative is. If it is a dead child, then you would leave them an offering of toys. If it is an adult, however, you would leave, what else? Alcohol! Offerings are also left outside the home and range from candy skulls, which is one of the more popular offerings, to alcohol and spiced pumpkin. People believe that the souls eat the essence of these food and drink offerings, so that when we as humans consume the products afterwards, they hold no nutritional value. That makes...sense? Pillows and blankets are also left out so the spirits can rest from their long journey. Families will even go as far as camping out at their relative's gravestone all night. Altars are not just made inside the home or at graveyards, but are such a part of Mexican heritage that classrooms on all levels build their own altars and leave offerings for the dead, the same going for government buildings, though they are usually smaller. While some would put the holy cross or a picture of the Virgin Mary in their altars at home, it is not done at schools or places of work.

Skulls are by far the most common symbol attributed to the holiday. People wear skull masks called calacas and make skulls out of sugar or chocolate. The sugar skulls have their recipients name etched in the back and are given to both the living and the dead. I remember our Spanish Club selling skull lollipops during this day and I'm guessing this was the closest they could come to a skull made out of sugar. Catrina is also a huge part of the day, as people put pictures up of her everywhere. The Day of the Dead is in no way universally celebrated the same way. That goes for inside of Mexico also, as many towns have different customs and some traditions have been dropped altogether. In cities especially, and in certain parts of Mexico, many of the traditions have faded away and instead have been replaced by a Halloween tradition: Trick-or-Treating. Kids dress up and go around asking for treats or money, even asking people passing them on the street. Sounds basically like a more intense version of our Halloween tradition.

The Day of the Dead is celebrated in many other areas of the world, mostly ones with large Catholic populations, as The Day of the Dead is basically part of the Catholic All Saints Day and All Souls Day. The tradition of leaving flowers and gifts at graves once a year is in no way specific to just the Mexican culture and those of the Catholic faith. Many other cultures honor their dead in a similar fashion and take time to remember their ancestors. America also celebrates the Day of the Dead, but it's mostly done in states with high concentrations of people from Latin American countries. Like I have said before, I think that we need to make this a part of our culture in some way. I just feel like we need to take the time to honor those who came before us and those that meant a lot to us while they were alive. So, even if you aren't from a country that celebrates the Day of the Dead, take some time out of your day to remember someone you lost. Also, take time to eat some candy skulls, because that sounds delicious.