Today is May 5th, or Cinco de Mayo. Guess what. There’s not a whole lot of celebration of Cinco de Mayo in Mexico City.
Mexican Independence Day is not on May 5th. Independence Day is September 16. May 5th, instead, is the celebration of a historical battle between the Mexican army and France in 1862. The battle took place in Puebla, where I’m sure they are celebrating a lot today.
The interesting thing about the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, is that the Mexican army was outnumbered by the French, but they were resilient and won the battle anyway. Of course, the French eventually won and occupied Mexico until 1867, when Maximilian was executed by Benito Juarez.
It’s interesting to me how a holiday so widely celebrated in the United States has its origins in Mexico but is not widely celebrated here. It’s amazing how little the two neighboring countries really know about each other.
