History of Cinco de Mayo

Cinco de Mayo literally translates as May 5^th and this is the name of the celebration also lovingly dubbed as Mexico St. Patty’s Day. The holiday commemorates the Battle of the Puebla between France and Mexico on May 5th 1862. At the time, Mexico owed France along with Spain and England a lot of money. The three countries sent troops to Mexico to demand payment. Spain and England reached an agreement and left but France set out to attack Mexican forces in Pueblo.

The French army  wanted to capture Mexico City in order to force the Mexican government to pay those debts. The French army was well equipped and had 8,000 men when the Mexican army was poorly equipped with just 2,000 men. The battle lasted three hours and Mexico was victorious with the French losing nearly five hundred men while Mexico lost less than a hundred. Although the French would return to see year later to recapture Pueblo and the rest of Mexico the Battle of Pueblo created a sense of national pride and it was declared a national holiday today.

Just six years later the French withdrew from the country entirely so thanks to the grit and bravery of those victorious Mexican soldiers now you have Cinco de Mayo. Cinco de Mayo celebrates a Mexican victory but it may have actually been Latinos living in the United States that helped turn the date into a full-fledged party. According to the UCLA Center for the Study of Latino health and Culture, Latino gold miners in California were so delighted by the Mexican victory that they fired rifles and sang patriotic songs. The holiday which has been celebrated in California since 1863 is more or less ignored in Mexico . Basically it’s a holiday mainly observed in the USA to celebrate Mexican heritage that was invented in California by Mexican miners.