When: May 5
Cinco de Mayo marks Mexico's unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. It's a minor regional holiday in Mexico but a major cultural event in the U.S. — and the gap between the two tells an interesting story about immigration, identity, and marketing.
The most celebrated Mexican holiday in America commemorates a battle most Mexicans don't make much of — and the food Americans eat for it isn't from anywhere near Puebla.
On May 5, 1862, a Mexican army of roughly 4,500 men — many of them indigenous Zapotec and Mixtec soldiers under General Ignacio Zaragoza — defeated a French expeditionary force of approximately 6,000 at the Battle of Puebla. France was the dominant military power in Europe at the time, and the Mexican victory was a genuine upset that temporarily halted the French invasion ordered by Napoleon III. Temporarily: the French regrouped, sent reinforcements, and occupied Mexico City a year later, installing Maximilian I as Emperor. Mexico wasn't fully liberated until 1867. The battle was significant but not decisive. In Mexico today, Cinco de Mayo is observed primarily in the state of Puebla, where the battle took place — a regional holiday with parades and civic ceremonies. Mexico's major national independence holiday is September 16 (Día de la Independencia), commemorating the 1810 start of the war for independence from Spain, not France. Many people in the U.S. conflate the two. The...