When Erika dropped off the photos from Yacht Club this week, my first question was “what’s up with the sombreros?”. I actually forgot that May 5th = Cinco de Mayo. For the record, I failed Spanish in high school so there ya’ go.
If you didn’t already know, May 5th is not Independence Day in Mexico (that’s September 16th) though half the people I asked thought it was.
In fact, Cinco de Mayo celebrates the day in 1862 when the Mexican army, under the command of General Ignacio Zaragosa (Texan by the way) and Colonel Porfirio Diaz, defeated the much larger and better equipped French army at the Battle of Puebla.
These days, a well trained troop of Girl Scouts could probably kick the crap out of the French. But during the 19th century, Napoleon III’s French army was a dominant force in the world, so this was a pretty big deal in 1862. Let’s see who remembers this stuff next year. There will be a quiz.
Seriously though, why are there so many Mexican holidays anyway? I swear there is a Mexican holiday every single month except June and July and that doesn’t count because Summer is just one big extended holiday for everybody. Don’t believe me? Check out MEXonline.com.
Shout outs to Ram, Javi, Billy and the entire Yacht Club gang! Peace!
