Monday, May 3, 2010

Cinco de Mayo: It's not just for Mexicans anymore!

All hail the Mexican army's unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, under the leadership of Mexican General Ignacio Zaragoza SeguĂ­n! For without the good general and his army, there would be no Cinco de Mayo and, more importantly, no good reason for millions of Americans to get drunk in the middle of the week (at least this year)!

What's that I hear my Mexican readers saying? Cinco de Mayo is barely acknowledged, let alone a holiday, in Mexico? That it is, rather, a United States-based celebration of our Mexican neighbors to the South, those long-forgotten heroes who drove the French from Mexico (much like Saint Patrick drove the snakes from Ireland), who now the good people of Arizona are doing their darndest to prevent from crossing our borders -- the very same people who celebrate Cinco de Mayo every year with a festival and chihuahua races?!

Well, I'll be.

FYI, apparently Chandler, Arizona, isn't the only place celebrating Cinco de Mayo with the annual running of the chihuahuas. Petco sponsors several of these races (and not just on Cinco de Mayo), including this one:



(You can see this year's Chandler Chihuahua Race here.)

For other ways to properly celebrate Cinco de Mayo, watch this helpful how-to (or Howcast) video titled "How to Celebrate Cinco de Mayo":



Aplausos!

1 comment:

EMM said...

Hola! I will be celebrating this year by watching the Nationals. Ole!