Happy Cinco de Mayo . . .
. . . And everyone please take note: this day is not, not, not (did I say “not” already?) Mexico’s Independence Day. Yahoo!, to my infinite and impressed surprise, has a link on their front page to the history of the date. It is, really, a Puebla, Mexico holiday—it is more a state holiday than anything else. When I was growing up in Mexico, this was not a day that merited school marches or even declaratory contests (which I always won, thankyouverymuch). Its common name is La Batalla de Puebla, and you can think of it as the Mexican equivalent to the Battle of Agincourt—Mexico, like England, kicked French ass against all odds. The only difference? Puebla won it for Mexico on sovereign territory (though Henry V would argue strongly with me that Agincourt was, in fact, his).
So go out, get drunk, go ahead—just go knowing the history and please stop yelling that it’s my independence day. It’s not—that’s September 15 – 16. This happened half a century after el Dia de la Independencia. And close to half a century before the war commemorated on November 20, el Dia de la Revolucion.
For fun, a previous Cinco de Mayo rant at Sonnet87: Sinko de Mayo*.
¡Feliz día de la independencia!
You’re in America, type American!
Kidding, kidding.
Snerk. You guys are ridiculous.