“Cerveza’ and a little history of ‘Cinco de Mayo’

“Cerveza’ and a little history of ‘Cinco de Mayo’

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You’ll probably hear a lot of stories about “Cinco de Mayo” in Texas or our part of the country.

Count me in.  I love the day because there is Mexican food all over town as well as those little girls dancing in their traditional dresses.

So what’s the big deal about “Cinco de Mayo”? What do we have these parties?

Allan Wall has a good summary for those of us who are not Mexican or studied Mexican history in school:

“Cinco de Mayo, literally “May the 5th,” is the holiday celebrating the Mexican victory over the French army on May the 5th, 1862, at Puebla, east of Mexico City.”

In the U.S., specially in the Southwest, “Cinco de Mayo” has turned into a Mexican version of St. Patrick’s Day in Boston, Columbus Day in New York or Polish Day in Chicago.

“Cinco de Mayo” is a Mexican-American celebration. Every year, our parades have gotten bigger and bigger.

As Mr. Wall writes, “Cinco de Mayo” is a very good day for local retail merchants :

“Cinco de Mayo is also a big beer-drinking day, with Mexican beer brands doing 5-10 percent of their U.S. sales for the occasion.”

So pass the beer, the chips and those wonderful enchiladas.

“Cinco de Mayo” is not Mexico’s July 4th!

“Cinco de Mayo” is just a fun day to eat Mexican food!

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