Cinco de Mayo

Perhaps a bit of a cliché - but no more than St Patrick's Day or National Poetry Month - here's the annual Cinco de Mayo offering. Most delectable graphics though are for Day of the Dead, which is right up there with that other great but not quite All American holiday, Mardi Gras. Did you know that the historical French Quarter as we know it today was actually built by the Spanish?

Mountainair needs a Hispanic oriented event, but would it have to be Cinco de Mayo? The ancestors of many area Hispanics settled here before there was a Mexico. They came here from Nueva España, not Mexico. Still, a "why no 5 de mayo" question that this comment answers also reminded me that something is in order if only offset the absence of whatever should be.

The usual:

• Wikipedia
• History & pictures
• News (from google search)
  

!Feliz Cinco de Mayo! Seattle-area fiestas‎ - Five Days of Cinco de Mayo: The Lost Lady American Cantina started celebrating Cinco de Mayo last week and will conclude its five days of fun today. - Seattle Times Cinco de Mayo: A family's celebration - The Star-Ledger, NJ ‎ Crowds brave rain for Cinco de Mayo festivities‎ - San Francisco Chronicle

• Mexico Online - history & significance of holiday
• The Cinco de Mayo website from San Marcos, Texas has a more in-depth article on the history of the holiday.
• Huffinton Post - 5 fun ways to celebrate Cinco de Mayo (which does NOT refer to a jar of mayo sitting in the sink), with pictures
  

Sounding a critical note:
Does Anybody Know What Cinco de Mayo Is All About?

Mexican celebrating Cinco de Mayo is like Americans celebrating the battle of 1812... (actually, we do just that in Francophone South Louisiana) If everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day (another ethnic-based celebration featuring lots of alcohol), is everyone Mexican on Cinco de Mayo?

Battle of Puebla

Cinco de Mayo ‘means nothing to us’ say other Hispanic immigrant groups

And an intriguing historical morsel:

"On Cinco de Mayo . . . New Mexico historian unearths Spain's role in the American Revolution," Bill Dupuy, Los Alamos Public Affairs Office

Spain that played a major role in the war that won the United States its independence from Britain, according to noted New Mexico historian Tom Chavez, executive director of the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque. Based on extensive research Chavez conducted in Spain, his book "Spain and the Independence of the United States," chronicles a history rarely if ever discussed or written about in the United States.

The Archives of the Indies in Seville include tributes written by George Washington, Patrick Henry and others who were close enough to the strategies to know. "Without Spain, this nation would not have been successful," Chavez quoted one letter as saying. Spain and its colonies contributed more money to the American cause than France. Of course, Spain's motives were not exactly altruistic. In the end, it got virtually everything it wanted. It retained important trading ports in the Indies and it stopped major British incursions into Central America.

As for the United States, Spain's contribution seems to have been forgotten. Few school children can read about it in textbooks, said Chavez. Only the symbol for the American dollar remains as a reminder, he said, and only for those who know it is a derivation of nomenclature signifying the Spanish peso.

Now to hunt up appropriate Mexican poets for the plog - Octavio Paz is always a good choice, among so many others. Let's not overlook Native American culture and history either. Another day to celebrate and honor that too.