MAY FIFTH

Today is a day of celebration.

What are we celebrating exactly?


The anniversary of the Battle of Puebla, of course.

"Las armas nacionales se han cubierto de gloria."


On May fifth, 1862, general Ignacio Zaragoza and four and a half thousand Mexicans defeated a larger and much better equipped French army outside the city of Puebla. While the French went on to dominate Mexico for a couple of years, even imposing an emperor as ruler over Mexico, this native victory marked a crucial morale-boost for the republican forces, and the beginning of the end of colonialist domination.

We were in the thick of our own civil war at the time. Never-the-less, there were Tejanos and Californios on the right side at Puebla. Which is one of the reasons why Cinco de Mayo is big in California and Texas, though not a major holiday in Mexico outside of the state of Puebla.



Note: General Zaragoza did not survive the year, dying of typhoid fever on September 8, 1862 at age 33. Eight days later, President Juárez officially made the anniversary of the La Batalla de Puebla a national holiday. The French were finally defeated in 1867.