Ok, I want to hear from Mexican born Mexicans who actually celebrate and make a big deal of the 5 de Mayo holiday! Write me an email or leave your comments--tell me what or why this day is special to you and your family. Left or right, I don't care about political ideology--I want to hear from you.
Everything I have heard is that 5 de Mayo is not even a real Mexican holiday. It's just another American-made multiculturalist holiday. Am I getting this wrong?
President Bush is on TV right now, and just said how 5 de Mayo is a special holiday for Mexicans. I will accept that maybe Mexican immigrants living in the US have taken to this holiday as a way to retain their homeland identity (let's leave out the issue of assimilation for this one). But, again from what I understand, for the President to say this is a special Mexican holiday sounds like PC pandering to me.
Here is an interesting post from 5 de Mayo of 2004.
Everything I have heard is that 5 de Mayo is not even a real Mexican holiday. It's just another American-made multiculturalist holiday. Am I getting this wrong?
President Bush is on TV right now, and just said how 5 de Mayo is a special holiday for Mexicans. I will accept that maybe Mexican immigrants living in the US have taken to this holiday as a way to retain their homeland identity (let's leave out the issue of assimilation for this one). But, again from what I understand, for the President to say this is a special Mexican holiday sounds like PC pandering to me.
Here is an interesting post from 5 de Mayo of 2004.
Today is Cinco de Mayo in Mexico and absolutely nothing is happening here in Oaxaca to commemorate it. I imagine the same is true in the rest of the country, except maybe in Puebla where the Cinco de Mayo battle actually occurred. It's funny how in the States, people think of this date as a major major celebration. But I bet it's celebrated more in U.S. Mexican restaurants than in Mexico itself. It's not even an official holiday here.Turn on Fox News while you are at it--President Bush is talking about immigration and guest worker program.
A friend theorized once that the reason Americans think Cinco de Mayo is such a big deal is that the name sounds kind of like Fourth of July. I'm buying that theory.
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