CINCO DE MAYO
History and Relevance
>via: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/03/cinco-de-mayo-quiz-mexican-history_n_3209326.html
Cinco de Mayo:
Marking it’s 150th Anniversary
& it’s hidden link to African people
The French forces, considered to be the best army of that day, were so contemptuous of Mexican forces that they attempted to push right through the center of Puebla’s defenders in their first assault. This tactical error cost the French over a thousand casualties, dead or wounded, strewn on the battlefield. The Mexican army was so heartened by their success that they left their positions and chased the humiliated French troops. The defeat of a Confederate ally such as Napoleon, is a historic event that descendants of enslaved Africans and all others who uphold democracy should celebrate with enthusiasm. It was President Benito Juárez who gave land to a faction of the Black-Seminole freedom fighters that had carried on a long and courageous war of liberation against Spanish and U.S. colonizers. It was certainly in the interest of Blacks on both sides of the Rio Grande, that the Juárez government which had befriended rebellious slaves, and whose predecessor had outlawed slavery, survive Napoleon’s invasion and continue in office.
It is interesting to note that Napoleon was urged to invade and overthrow the Mexican government by the brother of Austria’s emperor Archduke Maximilian. Maximilian’s involvement in the plot gives Africans even more cause to join with Chicano neighbors in celebrating Cinco de Mayo. Six years before Napoleon’s ill-fated invasion of Mexico,
Maximilian married Carlotta, sister of the infamous King Leopold 2nd of Belgium- a racist despot who was personally responsible for colonizing, mutilating and annihilating millions of Congolese in his drive for profits. It is also worth noting that during this period Europe’s ruling elites were busily plotting the conquest of non-Western people-often cooperating with one another and occasionally competing. By 1884 at the infamous Berlin Conference France, Britain, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands, joined by the U.S. as godfather, resolved their differences and divided the African continent among themselves.
Through shared misfortune – conquest and slavery – the histories of Mexicans and Blacks in this hemisphere have become inseparably linked. Few, if any, oppressed people have overcome adversity without assistance from allies. Indigenous and African people have been one another’s primary ally in many instances, since the beginning of the pillage, slavery and genocide initiated by Columbus in the Americas over 500 years ago. From Canada to the southern tip of South America, countless acts of joint resistance to colonization and slavery are central to the suppressed history of both peoples. Present-day Black and Brown conflicts whether at high school campuses, on the streets, on the big yard at San Quentin or between equally disempowered Latino and Black laborers in South L.A., rewards the same elites whose wealth and power are dependent upon divided and unorganized people of color.
Whether the flashpoint is Puebla or Chiapas, Cinco de Mayo is a perfect time to reflect upon and discuss the continuing resistance by Mexico’s people to domination, and when appropriate, the complimentary dynamics of the struggles for Black and Brown liberation. Cinco de Mayo is not to be commercialized by opportunists or trivialized as a one day superficial and lukewarm acknowledgement of Mexican culture. When honest accounts of history are finally written into textbooks, African and Mexican (Latino) youth will be be better able to affirm, deepen and project their long-established unity into the future.
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written by Ron Wilkins (Professor & original LA Slauson)
>via: http://hiphopandpolitics.wordpress.com/2012/05/05/cinco-de-mayo-marking-its-150th-anniversary-its-hidden-link-to-african-people/
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“Cinco de Mayo: La Batalla”
Provides a History Lesson
by Adriana Maestas
On Friday, Cinco de Mayo: La Batalla was released in Los Angeles and Orange County, California. The movie chronicles the story of the Battle of Puebla, which occurred on May 5, 1862. The French intervention in Mexico had begun in 1861 because Napoleon III attempted to have more influence in Mexico. Mexico had just defaulted on its debt with France, Great Britain, and Spain, which created an opportunity for France to insert itself in Mexico.
La Batalla of Cinco de Mayo occurred when a lesser equipped Mexican army led by General Ignacio Zaragosa beat the powerful French army in Puebla. While this battle wasn’t a game changer in the conflict, it did give the Mexican army a morale boost, but it would end up taking six years before France withdrew its forces.
In Mexico, Cinco de Mayo is not commemorated to the extent that it is here in the U.S., but it’s worth reminding people that today is not Mexican Independence Day and that there is a history behind the commercialized festivities. Mexican director Rafa Lara brings that history lesson to the silver screen in Cinco de Mayo: La Batalla.
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Adriana Maestas is the senior contributing editor of Politic365.com. She has covered issues ranging from immigration and higher education to health care policy. Adriana holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of California, Irvine and a master’s degree in public policy from Claremont Graduate University. You can find her on twitter: @LatinoPolitics