(Mostly an encore post, from 2009)
You thought Cinco de Mayo was Independence Day for Mexico?
No, it’s not.
History.com has a nice explanation, with a nice little video.
Perhaps the U.S. should celebrate the day, too, at least in those states who were not in the old Confederacy. On May 5, 1862, Mexicans under the command of 33 year old Commander General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín stopped the quick advance of superior French forces trying to invade Mexico to take it over, at the Battle of Puebla. While France did eventually defeat Mexican forces (after getting 30,000 men in reinforcements), the spirit of May 5 inspired Mexicans to continue to fight for freedom. And ultimately, Mexican forces overpowered and captured the French forces and Emperor Maximilian, who was executed.
Thus ended a great hope for the Confederacy, that French-supported Mexican Army would lend aid to the Confederates in their struggle to secede from the Union.
It is one of the great what-ifs of history: What if France had kept Mexico, and what if French-led Mexican forces backed up the Confederate Army?
One thing is rather sure: Had that happened, and had the Confederacy been successful, we wouldn’t be celebrating Cinco de Mayo in Texas today.
Battle of Puebla, Wikimedia (artist?)
Mexican Independence Day is September 16.
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Update: Sam DeBerry sends a note that Seguin was a Texan. So the Mexican hero of the Battle of Puebla was a Texan. You couldn’t make this stuff up — real history is always more interesting than fiction.
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
Talked about this on my blog recently too:
http://spanishplans.wordpress.com/2011/05/02/5-things-you-didnt-know-about-5-de-mayo/
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http://steveelling.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/6267041/29093291
A few too many cervesas, perhaps?
Posted on: May 5, 2011 6:06 pm
Edited on: May 5, 2011 6:45 pm
Score: 89
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Here’s another installment in the ever-evolving chronicles of clueless Americans, part 2,912.
While Sergio Garcia was playing at the Wells Fargo Championship on Thursday, a fan apparently took note of the date and yelled in his direction as he wantered past.
“Hey, Sergio,” the fan bellowed. “Happy Cinco de Mayo.”
Garcia is from Spain. May 5 is Mexico’s national independence day.
Category: Golf
Comments
NoAxToGrind
Reputation: 88
Level: All-Star
Since: Nov 12, 2006
Posted on: May 5, 2011 6:51 pm
Score: 59
A few too many cervesas, perhaps?
Make it part 2,913. May 5th is NOT Mexico’s National Indepence day.
http://news.discovery.com/history/w
ith-a-history-seeped-in-battles-and
-rebuilding-mexico-has-earned-every
-right-to-be-proud-today-marks-a-sp
ecial-holiday-tra.html
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I’m not sure France would have gotten involved. I seem to recall the traitors expected the English to get involved…and oops..that didn’t happen either.
If either England or France had gotten involved on the traitors behalf the other more than likely would have gotten involved on behalf of the United States just out of spite.
Lets remember quite a large part of the reason France backed the American colonies in the revolutionary war was out of the desire to spite the British.
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Assuming the French had kept control of Mexico, would they have had enough local support to have been able to effectively help the South? Would Mexican troops have followed them and fought effectively in support of the Confederate Army? Would France have been too busy putting out brushfires here and there to lend significant support to the Confederates? Flying by the seat of my pants, those seem like more likely outcomes than the Confederates getting sufficient support from them to have changed the outcome.
Or perhaps it would have ended with the Grand Army of the Republic invading Mexico, kicking out the French, and incorporating what we hadn’t taken in the Mexican-American war?
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