Search results
Celebrated annually on May 5, Cinco de Mayo recognizes Mexico's victory over the Second French Empire led by Napoleon III at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. The holiday has since become perhaps more ...
Apr 30, 2024 · Mexico. Battle of Puebla, (May 5, 1862), battle fought at Puebla, Mexico, between the army of the liberal government headed by Benito Juárez and the French forces sent by Napoleon III to establish a French satellite state in Mexico. The battle, which ended in a Mexican victory, is celebrated in the national calendar of Mexican holidays as ...
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Overview
- The origins of Cinco de Mayo: The Battle of Puebla
- How Cinco de Mayo became a U.S. holiday
- How Cinco de Mayo is celebrated today
The May 5 holiday honors Mexico’s victory in an 1862 battle—so how did it come to rival St. Patrick’s Day as a day of revelry in the United States?
Mexico City residents take part in a traditional reenactment of the Battle of Puebla—a victory for Mexican forces that took place on the May 5, 1862, or Cinco de Mayo. Although the holiday is celebrated in parts of Mexico, it has become larger than life in the United States.
Every year on May 5, fiesta lovers across the United States gather to celebrate the Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo—literally "May 5" in Spanish. And some U.S. partygoers may be surprised to learn that Cinco de Mayo history is short on beer, long on bloodshed.
Cinco de Mayo is often mistaken for Mexican Independence Day, which is actually September 16. On that date in 1810, Mexico declared its independence from Spanish rule.
Cinco de Mayo traces its origins to the Mexican army’s unlikely defeat of far better equipped French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862.
Emperor Napoleon III had sent French troops to Mexico to secure dominance over the former Spanish colony and install one of his relatives, Archduke Maximilian of Austria, as its ruler. Led by General Ignacio Zaragoza, a Mexican militia raced to fortify the city of Puebla against the advancing French troops.
(Here’s how the Battle of Puebla unfolded.)
Zaragoza won the battle, but the Mexicans ultimately lost the war. Maximilian became Mexico's emperor for three years before the country reclaimed its independence.
Left: Mexican President Benito Juarez and his troops march into Mexico City after the 1867 defeat of French Emperor Maximilian, whom Napoleon III had sent to conquer and rule over Mexico.
Photograph by Hulton-Deutsch Collection, CORBIS/Getty Images
Cinco de Mayo is celebrated only sporadically in Mexico, mainly in the southern town of Puebla and a few larger cities.
However, Cinco de Mayo rapidly gained popularity in the U.S., where changing demographics have helped to turn the holiday into a cultural event. Latinos are the largest minority in the U.S. today with 62.1 million people, representing 18.9 percent of the population, according to 2020 Census data.
(Hispanic? Latino? Here's where the terms come from.)
Cinco de Mayo gained its first popularity in the U.S. in the 1950s and 1960s, partly because of an outpouring of brotherly love, José Alamillo, who was then a professor of ethnic studies at Washington State University, told National Geographic in 2006.
"The reason it became more popular was in part because of the Good Neighbor policy," he said, referring to a U.S. government effort at the time to reach out to neighboring countries.
"Cinco de Mayo's purpose was to function as a bridge between these two cultures," Alamillo said.
Then came the 1980s, and the commercialization of Cinco de Mayo.
This, Alamillo said, is when the meaning of Cinco de Mayo changed from community self-determination to a drinking holiday for many people.
He says U.S. corporations, particularly those selling alcohol, were eager to tap into the expanding Hispanic population in the U.S.
"It's not just the large number of the Hispanics but also that it's a very young population that is particularly receptive to advertisers," Alamillo said. “Cinco de Mayo became a vehicle to tap into that market.”
Today, most Americans celebrate Cinco de Mayo by indulging in a glut of tacos, tequila, and beer. In fact, in recent years Cinco de Mayo beer sales have outpaced both St. Patrick’s Day and the Super Bowl.
But many communities still do honor the holiday with festivals, parades, and other events honoring the richness of Mexican-American culture and heritage.
- Stefan Lovgren
People also ask
What happened on Cinco de Mayo 1862?
When was the Battle of Puebla fought?
What happened at the Battle of Puebla?
Who won the Battle of Puebla?
May 3, 2021 · The real history of Cinco de Mayo. Cinco de Mayo isn’t the same as Mexico’s Independence Day. (That’s Sept. 16.) The holiday celebrates the Mexican victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla, which took place on May 5, 1862. A year prior, Mexican President Benito Juarez suspended payment of all foreign debts.
May 4, 2018 · The victorious origins of Cinco de Mayo. Behind modern Cinco de Mayo celebrations is the 1862 Battle of Puebla, a Mexican triumph over French colonial forces. General Zaragoza’s Mexican army ...
- Isabel Bueno
The Battle of Puebla ( Spanish: Batalla de Puebla; French: Bataille de Puebla ), also known as the Battle of May 5 ( Spanish: Batalla del 5 de Mayo) took place on 5 May, Cinco de Mayo, 1862, near Puebla de los Ángeles, during the second French intervention in Mexico. French troops under the command of Charles de Lorencez repeatedly failed to ...
May 5, 2022 · A Cinco de Mayo party in Laredo, Texas. ... 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 ...
