Cinco de Mayo commemorates Mexico’s unexpected victory over France in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. The conflict between the two countries had started in 1861, after Benito Juárez, the then president of Mexico, suspended the nation’s foreign debt payments, and Napoleon III responded by sending French troops to invade them.

“The victory in Puebla galvanized the Mexican forces but turned out to be short-lived, and France later occupied the country, installing Maximilian I as emperor. Not until 1867 did the new Mexican Republic finally expel the French, execute Maximilian I and regain control of the country”.

According to a specialist publication by The New York Times, the day, mostly commemorated by Mexican Americans north of the U.S. border, is also celebrated in Puebla, the town and region southeast of Mexico City, where the holiday originated. “Cinco de Mayo had been celebrated in California every year since its inception in 1863. In that first year, Mexicans and Americans in the state came together to mark the anniversary of the Battle of Puebla and use it to raise money and recruit men to aid those still fighting under the leadership of Juárez against the French”.

Those early celebrations, according to Dr. Jessica Lavariega Monforti, vice provost at California State University, were mostly about fighting for democracy and freedom against white supremacists and other oppressors — both in Mexico and in Civil War-era California, where Latinos mostly favored a Union victory over the Confederacy.

“Cinco de Mayo continued to be celebrated in the United States, largely thanks to the efforts of those of Mexican descent. Jeffrey M. Pilcher, a professor of history at the University of Toronto, said followers of the dictator Porfirio Díaz, who ruled Mexico intermittently between 1876 and 1911, and had been a general in the Battle of Puebla, continued to celebrate Cinco de Mayo while living in exile in the American south”.

Pointed out as a source of pride by Latino activists, the celebration gradually became a festival for Mexicans and Mexican Americans across the country, as well as part of a developing Mexican American civil rights movement that began in the 1940s.

According to the publication, “Over time, however, that message of cultural pride seemed to get lost. Mr. Pilcher said that Cinco de Mayo began to take off in the United States in the 1970s and ’80s, when brewing companies began capitalizing on it as a way to appeal to consumers amid the rising popularity of Mexican restaurants”.

“In Mexico, the festivity is marked in the state of Puebla with historical re-enactments of the Battle of Puebla, parades, mariachi music, colorful costumes and fireworks. “For many Mexicans, however, May 5 is a day like any other. It is not a federal holiday, so offices, banks and stores remain open”, according to Dr. Lavariega Monforti to The New York Times.

“These efforts are mostly visible in larger cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago, where events are dedicated to the celebrations of dance, literature and food from Puebla. In New York City, some Mexican folkloric troupes are also treating Cinco de Mayo as an opportunity to direct attention to the historic events and culture of the Puebla region”.