by Allan Wall, Mexico News Report, ©2025
(May 5, 2025) — Cinco de Mayo – May the 5th, is the Mexican holiday celebrating the Mexican victory over the French army on May the 5th, 1862, at Puebla, east of Mexico City.
Cinco de Mayo is not Mexican Independence Day, as many erroneously think. That’s September 16th (and the night before).
And actually, Cinco de Mayo is not that big a deal in Mexico.
The city of Puebla holds a big annual celebration on the anniversary of the battle. But in most of Mexico, Cinco de Mayo is not an important holiday. It’s mostly a bank holiday and a day off from school.
In the United States Cinco de Mayo has become, in recent years, the major Mexican – American celebration, celebrated by others also. Throughout the Southwest, and in other parts of the U.S., there are various Cinco de Mayo celebrations – parades, mariachi music performances , and exhibitions of Mexican dancing.etc . Cinco de Mayo is also a big beer-drinking day.
The Cinco de Mayo battle was a part of a longer conflict called the French Intervention, which lasted from 1862 to 1867. The French military occupied Mexico and fought the republican government of President Benito Juarez.
French Emperor Napoleon III saw France as the protector of the Latin peoples, and had an ambitious plan to establish Mexico as a bulwark against the United States.
France invaded Mexico during the U.S. Civil War, which rendered the U.S. military unable to intervene. Part of the French emperor’s plan was a linkup with the Confederacy, thus neutralizing U.S. ability to thwart the French strategy .
On May 5th, 1862, north of the city of Puebla, the French Army, under General Charles de Lorencez fought the Mexican army, under the command of General Ignacio Zaragoza.
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