The History of Cinco de Mayo Day

The 5th of May is not Mexican Independence Day, but it should be!  And Cinco de Mayo is not an American holiday, but it should be.  Mexico declared its independence from Mother Spain on midnight, the 15th of September, 1810.  But it took 11 long years before the Spanish Empire’s soldiers were forced to leave Mexico.

So, why Cinco de Mayo?  And why should Americans savor this day as well?  Because 4,000 Mexican Soldiers smashed the French Army of 8,000 at Puebla, Mexico, 100 miles east of Mexico City, the capital, on the morning of May 5, 1862. The outcome of the battle would curtail the planned French assistance to U.S. Confederate forces.

The French had landed in Mexico, with Spanish and English troops, five months earlier on the pretext of collecting Mexican debts from the newly elected government of Democratic President & Indian,  Benito Juarez.  The English and Spanish quickly made their deals and left.  The French, however, had very different ideas.

Under Emperor Napoleon III, who detested the United States, the French had come to stay.  They brought along a Hapsburg prince with them to rule the new Mexican empire;  Maximilian & his wife, Carolota.  Napoleon's French Army had not been defeated in 50 years, and it invaded Mexico with the finest modern equipment and with a newly reconstituted Foreign Legion.  The French were not afraid of anyone’s army,    and the United States was heavily embroiled in it’s own Civil War which the French wanted to tilt towards the Confederate forces and the break up of the United States.

The French Army left the port of Vera Cruz to attack Mexico City to the west, as the French assumed that the Mexicans would give up the fight should their capital fall to the enemy -- as was European custom.

So on May 5, 1863 the Mexican Army, under the command of Texas-born General Zaragosa, and the Mexican Cavalry under the command of Colonel Porfirio Diaz,  later to become Mexico's president, awaited.  Brightly dressed French Dragoons led the enemy columns.  The Mexican Army was not as stylishly attired, but they were very highly prepared for battle.

General Zaragosa ordered Colonel Diaz to take his cavalry, the best in the world, out to the French flanks.      In response, the French committed a grave tactical error; they sent their cavalry off to chase Diaz and his men, who proceeded to butcher them.  The remaining French infantrymen then charged the Mexican defenders through thick sloppy mud from a recent thunderstorm as hundreds of head of stampeding cattle were stirred up by Indians, allied with the Mexicans, resulting in a scene of utter confusion and defeat of the French.

When the battle was over, the French Army had suffered dramatic looses and their cavalry was defeated  by Diaz' superb horsemen.  The Mexicans had won a great victory that kept Napoleon III from supplying the U.S. Confederate forces for another year, allowing the United States to build up the greatest army the world had ever seen.  The Union Forces smashed the Confederates at Gettysburg 14 months after the battle of Puebla, essentially ending the Civil War and keeping the United States a united & growing country.

Union forces were then rushed to the Texas/Mexican border under General Phil Sheridan, who made sure that the Mexicans got all the weapons and ammunition they needed to expel the remaining French forces.  American soldiers by the thousands were discharged with their uniforms and rifles if they promised to join the Mexican Army to fight the French.  The American Legion of Honor later marched in the Victory Parade in Mexico City.

It might be a historical stretch to credit the survival of the United States to those brave 4,000 Mexican soldiers who faced an army twice as large on May 5th, 1862.  But who knows the results if the Mexicans had lost & the French re-gained a foothold in North America and supplied Confederate forces with French guns and canons?

In gratitude, thousands of Mexicans crossed the border after the attack on Pearl Harbor to join the U.S. Armed Forces.  As recently as the Persian Gulf War, Mexicans flooded American consulates with phone calls, trying to join up and fight another war for their friends in America.

Neither Mexicans or Americans ever forget who their friends are.  That's why Cinco de Mayo is such a party: A Party That Celebrates Freedom & Liberty.  There are the two precious ideals which Mexicans and Americans have fought shoulder to shoulder to protect & preserve, ever since the 5th of May, 1862. 

VIVA! el CINCO DE MAYO!!