05/04/2026
Celebrating the true history of 'Cinco De Mayo': Today in 1862, a Mexican militia under the command of General Ignacio Zaragoza defeated the French forces of Napoleon III at Puebla de Los Angeles, about 80 miles south of Mexico City with a large group volunteers from local communities along with regular troops, who fought back the French army and stopped their advance to Mexico City. The French sought to install Archduke Maximilian of Austria as Emperor of Mexico, so as to have a French presence on the North American continent and further colonize the Mexican people who had reclaimed their independence decades before after centuries of rule under the Spanish. While France did take control of Mexico the next year, their foothold there was tenuous and Mexico was able to regain its independence in 1867.
It is theorized that if the plan had succeeded, the French might have entered the American Civil War on the side of Confederates in order to break up the Union blockade of ships transporting cotton from the southern states, which was creating problems for the French in Europe and abroad due to their reliance on American cotton for their own textile ventures.
Established as a holiday by California Latinos in 1862 in solidarity with Mexico, by the early 20th century the holiday became a symbol of unity and strength in Mexican-American communities and a rallying point around anticolonialism and pride in Latino culture in the United States.
To read more about the real history of Cinco de Mayo, check out:
El Cinco de Mayo : an American tradition by David E Hayes-Bautista
Image credit: Library of Congress, Daily National Intelligencer. (Washington, DC), Apr. 27 1864.
