|
a breif history of cinco de mayo...
Here you go..... this explain it all....
The 5th of May is not Mexican Independence Day, but it should be! And
Cinco de Mayo is not an American holiday, but it should be. Mexico
declared its independence from mother Spain on midnight, the 15th of
September, 1810. And it took 11 years before the first Spanish soldiers
were told and forced to leave Mexico.
So, why Cinco de Mayo? And why should Americans savor this day as well?
Because 4,000 Mexican soldiers smashed the French and traitor Mexican
army of 8,000 at Puebla, Mexico, 100 miles east of Mexico City on the
morning of May 5, 1862.
The French had landed in Mexico (along with Spanish and English troops)
five months earlier on the pretext of collecting Mexican debts from the
newly elected government of democratic President (and Indian) Benito
Juarez. The English and Spanish quickly made deals and left. The
French, however, had different ideas.
Under Emperor Napoleon III, who detested the United States, the French
came to stay. They brought a Hapsburg prince with them to rule the new
Mexican empire. His name was Maximilian; his wife, Carolota.
Napoleon's French Army had not been defeated in 50 years, and it invaded
Mexico with the finest modern equipment and with a newly reconstituted
Foreign Legion. The French were not afraid of anyone, especially since
the United States was embroiled in its own Civil War.
The French Army left the port of Vera Cruz to attack Mexico City to the
west, as the French assumed that the Mexicans would give up should their
capital fall to the enemy -- as European countries traditionally did.
Under the command of Texas-born General Zaragosa, (and the cavalry under
the command of Colonel Porfirio Diaz, later to be Mexico's president and
dictator), the Mexicans awaited. Brightly dressed French Dragoons led
the enemy columns. The Mexican Army was less stylish.
General Zaragosa ordered Colonel Diaz to take his cavalry, the best in
the world, out to the French flanks. In response, the French did a most
stupid thing; they sent their cavalry off to chase Diaz and his men, who
proceeded to butcher them. The remaining French infantrymen charged the
Mexican defenders through sloppy mud from a thunderstorm and through
hundreds of head of stampeding cattle stirred up by Indians armed only
with machetes.
When the battle was over, many French were killed or wounded and their
cavalry was being chased by Diaz' superb horsemen miles away. The
Mexicans had won a great victory that kept Napoleon III from supplying
the confederate rebels for another year, allowing the United States to
build the greatest army the world had ever seen. This grand army
smashed the Confederates at Gettysburg just 14 months after the battle
of Puebla, essentially ending the Civil War.
Union forces were then rushed to the Texas/Mexican border under General
Phil Sheridan, who made sure that the Mexicans got all the weapons and
ammunition they needed to expel the French. American soldiers were
discharged with their uniforms and rifles if they promised to join the
Mexican Army to fight the French. The American Legion of Honor marched
in the Victory Parade in Mexico, City.
It might be a historical stretch to credit the survival of the United
States to those brave 4,000 Mexicans who faced an army twice as large in
1862. But who knows?
In gratitude, thousands of Mexicans crossed the border after Pearl
Harbor to join the U.S. Armed Forces. As recently as the Persian Gulf
War, Mexicans flooded American consulates with phone calls, trying to
join up and fight another war for America.
Mexicans, you see, never forget who their friends are, and neither do
Americans. That's why Cinco de Mayo is such a party -- A party that
celebrates freedom and liberty. There are two ideals which Mexicans and
Americans have fought shoulder to shoulder to protect, ever since the
5th of May, 1862. VIVA! el CINCO DE MAYO!!
|
Linear Mode
