What is Cinco de Mayo a celebration of?
El Cinco de Mayo (“The Fifth of May” in Spanish) is a national celebration in Mexico. It commemorates the victory of Mexican forces led by General Ignacio Zaragoza over the French expeditionary forces in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. Under the pretext of forcing payment for Mexico’s outstanding and crippling debt, Britain, Spain and France sent troops to Mexico. The democratically elected government of President Benito Jurez made agreements with the British and the Spanish, who promptly recalled their armies, but the French stayed, thus beginning the period of the French intervention in Mexico. Emperor Napoleon III wanted to secure French dominance in the former Spanish colony, including installing one of his relatives, Archduke Maximilian of Austria, as ruler of Mexico.
Cinco de Mayo celebrates Mexico’s defeat of French invaders at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. Cinco de Mayo has actually become a bigger holiday in the United States than in Mexico, where it is mostly a regional holiday in Puebla. There are large Cinco de Mayo celebrations with parades, music, and food in Los Angeles, Denver, Portland, St. Paul, and other cities across the country.
