I Would Like to Point Out
. . . That Cinco de Mayo is not Mexico’s independence day. That would be September 15/16 (yes, we get two days thanks to the festivities commencing on September 15 in order to get ready for the Grito; aren’t we special?). It’s also not a day to celebrate Latino culture as a whole, even Mexican culture as a whole—the holiday is regional and really belongs to Puebla, Mexico. Seriously, that’s like me taking something like January 26—the day Michigan was admitted to the Union—and deciding that this was a day I’d get my Yooper on, complete with hunting paraphernalia and a cheap beer like PBR, and proclaiming that the day must be the U.S.’s Independence Day (and a celebration of all things American—someone start playing Toby Keith!). I would love for Americans to stop using it as a day to a) make fun of Latinos, lumping us all together as a monolithic group and II) get drunk off their asses, but alas, it’s going the way of St. Patrick’s Day. I would love for Mexicans and other Latinos to stop using it as a day to I) pretend to know what actually happened on May 5, 1862 and b) get drunk off their asses.
Am I cranky? Yes. It’s a combination of a growing annoyance with the interpretation of the holiday and a shitty day yesterday in terms of wedding planning. Perhaps I’ll elucidate that further in another post.
