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.
A number of legends have grown up around this famous battle.
A popular view is that the Mexican army was composed of sturdy peasants armed with machetes, who defeated a vastly superior invasion force. Another story says the French were trampled by a cattle stampede.
But even if there were machete-wielding peasants and a cattle stampede, they were not decisive to the battle’s outcome. The truth is, General Zaragoza won the battle using sound military strategy and tactics.
The Mexican Army of 1862 was a fully-equipped 19th-century European-style military. At Puebla, Zaragoza had under his command regular infantry, artillery and cavalry. The Mexican troops were seasoned veterans of the recent War of the Reform (1857-1861).
It’s true that the French Army outnumbered the Mexican Army, but not by much. The French had 6,040 troops, and the Mexican army had 4,500 regular troops, and possibly additional volunteers (maybe those guys with machetes).
The Mexican Army was on the hills, and the French had to fight uphill, never an enviable position to be in. Each army had the same quantity of cannon.
The French Army tried and failed to assault the Mexican positions thrice, and by the third assault their cannon had run out of ammunition. So French troops had to attack without artillery support. After the third failure, they retreated, harassed by Mexican cavalry, and then it started to rain.
So Mexico won the battle , and Zaragoza sent a one-line report to President Juarez: “The national arms have been covered with glory”. The young general died only 4 months later, succumbing in September of 1862 to typhoid fever.
The 1862 Battle of Puebla was not the end of the French Intervention, which continued until 1867. Besides the determined opposition of Benito Juarez’ republican army, the French also faced U.S. pressure (after the Civil War had ended) and the Prussian threat back in Europe.
So Napoleon III called it quits in Mexico and withdrew the French Army.
The 1862 Battle of Puebla had been a great morale booster for Mexico, and is still the most famous battle of the war, by far .
Nowadays, a tourist can visit the site of the 1862 Battle of Puebla, as my wife and I did once. The principal Mexican defensive positions, the forts of Loreto and Guadalupe, are now part of a park in the city of Puebla.
As we walked in what is now a pine-covered park , it was quiet and peaceful, a far cry from the clamor of battle on May the 5th, 1862.