'Cinco de Mayo's purpose was to function as a bridge between these two cultures,' Alamillo said.ĭancers and musicians perform during a Cinco de Mayo celebration in San Jose, California, on May 5, 1980.

government effort at the time to reach out to neighboring countries.

'The reason it became more popular was in part because of the Good Neighbor policy,' he said, referring to a U.S. in the 1950s and 1960s, partly because of an outpouring of brotherly love, José Alamillo, who was then a professor of ethnic studies at Washington State University, told National Geographic in 2006. ( Hispanic? Latino? Here's where the terms come from.)Ĭinco de Mayo gained its first popularity in the U.S. today with 62.1 million people, representing 18.9 percent of the population, according to 2020 Census data. Latinos are the largest minority in the U.S. However, Cinco de Mayo rapidly gained popularity in the U.S., where changing demographics have helped to turn the holiday into a cultural event. holidayĬinco de Mayo is celebrated only sporadically in Mexico, mainly in the southern town of Puebla and a few larger cities. Photograph by Roger Viollet Collection, Getty Images How Cinco de Mayo became a U.S. He was elected to the presidency in 1861 and it was under his leadership that Mexican forces defeated the better-equipped French troops. Right: Benito Pablo Juarez Garcia was born in 1806 to Mesoamerican parents in the state of Oaxaca. Maximilian became Mexico's emperor for three years before the country reclaimed its independence. Zaragoza won the battle, but the Mexicans ultimately lost the war. ( Here’s how the Battle of Puebla unfolded.) Led by General Ignacio Zaragoza, a Mexican militia raced to fortify the city of Puebla against the advancing French troops. The origins of Cinco de Mayo: The Battle of PueblaĬinco de Mayo traces its origins to the Mexican army’s unlikely defeat of far better equipped French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862.Įmperor Napoleon III had sent French troops to Mexico to secure dominance over the former Spanish colony and install one of his relatives, Archduke Maximilian of Austria, as its ruler. Here’s what to know about the holiday-and how it became more widely celebrated in the U.S. On that date in 1810, Mexico declared its independence from Spanish rule.Ĭinco de Mayo actually commemorates another Mexican army victory. partygoers may be surprised to learn that Cinco de Mayo history is short on beer, long on bloodshed.Ĭinco de Mayo is often mistaken for Mexican Independence Day, which is actually September 16. Every year on May 5, fiesta lovers across the United States gather to celebrate the Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo-literally 'May 5' in Spanish.

The city we became book 2