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!!
|
