In the United States, Cinco de Mayo is widely celebrated, often marked by food, drinks and gatherings incorporating aspects of Mexican culture. Frequently misunderstood as Mexico’s Independence Day, it actually commemorates an entirely different victory — and it’s not a major national holiday in Mexico.
In truth, Mexicans barely celebrate the holiday. Only residents from Puebla, Mexico, observe it.
Cinco de Mayo marks Mexico’s 1862 victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla. The May 5 triumph over Napoleon lll’s troops, who sought to collect unpaid debts and establish a monarchy, is now celebrated by Puebla residents through street parades and battle reenactments.
Mexican Americans in California began celebrating the holiday in 1863 as a sign of solidarity and resistance against European monarchy during the Civil War.
Nearly 100 years later, the Chicano movement popularized Cinco de Mayo, said Rick Stepp, a cultural anthropologist and professor at the UF Center for Latin American Studies.
The Chicano movement, a Mexican American civil rights movement in the 1960s and ‘70s that advocated for political rights, labor protections and educational equality, adopted the holiday to celebrate Mexican heritage and resistance to oppression.
When companies like beer brands and restaurant chains sought to commercialize it, Stepp said, the holiday expanded.
Stepp said he believes Cinco de Mayo is probably the most misunderstood holiday in North America.
“It’s not a major national holiday at all,” he said. “Kids in Puebla might have school events, maybe a parade or reenactment, but in the rest of the country, it’s just May 5. Business as usual. So there’s this strange disconnect.”
Luis Felipe Gomez Lomelí, the associate director for academic programs for the UF Center of Latin American Studies, is from Guadalajara, Mexico. Lomelí, whose partner is from Puebla, said Cinco de Mayo is mostly celebrated by Americans rather than Mexicans. Only people from Puebla celebrate the holiday in his home country, he said.
“[It is] a very important day for the people of Puebla and for the Mexican American community,” he said. “In Puebla, of course, it is a big deal. It was this battle where they won against the French, and the French had the most impressive army in the world.”
Lomelí does not celebrate Cinco de Mayo, he said. For his partner, the holiday carries more importance, but she just observes it like any other day: with dinner.
“It is not like the Day of the Dead or something like that,” Lomelí said.
He said he does not understand why Cinco de Mayo is such an important symbol in the United States or how the celebration originated. He suspects it could be because some believe Cinco de Mayo is Mexico’s Independence Day, he said.
“I knew that in a couple of places in public schools in the United States, they'd say that it was the date of Mexico independence, and it could have been true if the French would have stopped intervening, but it did not end that day,” Lomelí said.
In reality, Cinco de Mayo was one victory in a thread of battles for independence.
Mexico gained its independence from Spain in 1821. When Mexico stopped paying its foreign debts in the early 1860s because of the resulting financial struggles, France, Britain and Spain sent soldiers to collect the money. While Britain and Spain left after making deals with Mexico, France stuck around with hopes of gaining control over the country. Mexican soldiers fought back at the Battle of Puebla, and while it didn’t end the French invasion, it slowed France’s efforts and boosted Mexican morale.
France’s involvement didn’t end until 1867, when the U.S. helped increase pressure, extinguishing the French empire and restoring Mexico’s republican government.
Fernando Paloma, a 31-year old drywall installer from Hidalgo, Mexico, attended a Cinco de Mayo celebration in Clearwater, Florida, on Sunday. Cinco de Mayo — better known in Mexico as the “La Batalla por Puebla” — is just another day in Hidalgo, he said. Paloma had heard of Cinco de Mayo celebrations before, but Sunday was his first time at an event marking the holiday, he added.
In the United States, Cinco de Mayo is widely celebrated with festivals and gatherings. In Mexico, however, the focus is on Independence Day in September.
“In Mexico, it is the contrary; Mexico celebrates more the 15th and the 16th of September, which was “El Grito” of the Independence of Mexico,” Paloma said.
El Grito de Dolores, or “the Cry of Dolores,” is a tradition commemorating the start of Mexico’s war for independence from Spain in 1810. During the celebrations held across Mexico, the president and local officials across the country ring a bell and reenact the call to independence in public squares. The tradition is also observed by Mexican communities in the United States.
Paloma said U.S. celebrations — which focus on Cinco de Mayo — feel more gaudy and commercial, with large festivals and promotions often driven by profit. Mexican observances, meanwhile, remain more limited.
Having spent the past 29 years of his life in Mexico, Paloma celebrated Cinco de Mayo for the first time in Florida.
Contact Dulce Rodriguez-Escamilla at drodriguez@alligator.org. Follow her on X @DulceRodrigueze.
Dulce Rodriguez is a sophomore Journalism Major with a Public Relations minor in her first semester at The Alligator, working as El Caimán's general assignment reporter. She loves to dance and bake in her free time, and she also enjoys watching murder mysteries and documentaries.
