Author: Irene Sanchez

Cinco de Mayo and the Battle for Historical Memory

The Southwest Political Report

By: The Editors of The Southwest Political Report

Outside of Puebla and surrounding areas Cinco de Mayo is not widely celebrated throughout Mexico. May 5^th is widely and perhaps rightly regarded as a holiday primarily celebrated in the U.S. This may at first appear to be quite disheartening given how grotesque the celebrations here are.

With the current political climate, anger and disgust with Cinco de Mayo’s typical horrific parade of banditos, luchadores and drunken debauchery that people always seem to feel more comfortable to engage in when wearing someone else’s skin, is more than understandable. The impulse to pull away and give up on the holiday entirely resonates with so many of us and for perfectly obvious reasons.

 It should however be remembered that this day, this commemoration of a heroic victory, did not begin as…