Cinco de Mayo

While everyone was running around drinking Coronas and Margaritas, I took a brief moment from inhaling my fish tacos and wondered what are we actually celebrating?  Cinco de Mayo has become something similar to St. Patrick’s day, where we adopt a holiday and use it to consume large quantities of alcohol and dress accordingly.  But where did this holiday originate? And what are the Mexican people even celebrating?  
Depending on whether you are celebrating in the U.S. or Mexico, it can have a slightly different meaning.  In the United States, it is observed as a celebration of Mexican  heritage and culture.  There are different events across the country that honor traditional Mexican dress, music, and dancing.  A well known example is mariachi, which is a traditional type of Mexican music.  Celebrating in the U.S. began when Mexicans and Latinos celebrated during the American Civil War.  Ever since then, it has slowly been gaining popularity.  However, it was until the 1980’s when advertisers and marketers caught on and began to use the holiday to push products relating to the holiday, such as beer.  Now, everyone loves to go out and celebrate with a sombrero and Corona.
In Mexico, specifically the state of Puebla, Cinco de Mayo is a national holiday.  The Battle of Puebla, which was on May 5th, 1862, was the day that the Mexicans defeated the French.  This was true victory because the French were better prepared and greatly outnumbered the Mexicans.  Even though their success was short lived, the victory still meant a great deal to the Mexican resistance effort.  
It is ironic that Cinco de Mayo is not even celebrated by all of Mexico, yet those of us here assume so.  Also, most people believe that Cinco de Mayo is Mexican Independence Day.  Cinco de Mayo probably also got so popular because of the increasing Hispanic population in the U.S.  As of 2010, the Hispanic population in the U.S. was 16.3%.  This percentage translates into roughly 50 million.  While that number is for the Hispanic population, not the Mexican population, the overall growing number could have something to do with why Cinco de Mayo is so popular.