@Jeruba Cinco de Mayo is not Mexican “Independence Day.” Cinco de Mayo, as I mentioned above, is a celebration, a commemoration of a single battle, the Battle of Puebla, that occurred on May 5th, 1862, when an outnumbered and out-equipped and out-trained, essentially inferior Mexican army. defeated an attempt by French forces to invade their country.
Mexican Independence Day is celebrated on September 16, and commemorates the day, in 1810 when Mexico, actually a priest named Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, issued a proclamation, known as the “Grito de Dolores,” not exactly, but kind of, the Mexican equivalent of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, which as this article puts it “was a passionate rallying cry … that amounted to a declaration of war against the colonial government.”
While the seeds had already been sown, the “Grito de Dolores” help inspire a ten year struggle by Mexico to free itself from almost 300 years of Spanish Rule.
So, again, Cinco De Mayo is not a celebration of Mexican “Independence Day” or anything close to that. It is a bigger holiday in the U.S. than in Mexico. It is a celebration of Mexican heritage and identity. All sorts of Americans have opportunities to celebrate their cultural and national heritage and identity. If anyone is concerned about taxpayer dollars going towards these things then perhaps we should cancel all the St. Patrick’s Day parades.