On May 4, 11:44*am, Secret_Ingredient > wrote:

> I have a close friend from Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico and every
> year, near Cinco de Mayo, we both wonder at how this (somewhat
> obscure) Mexican Holiday, became a cause célèbre in the United States..
> The Mexican victory at Puebla over the French is not, as my Mexican
> friend explains it, a major Mex holiday. So I ask if anyone here knows
> how Cinco de Mayo became something for Americans to celebrate?

The illegal alien invasion began in 1972 when Mexican capitalists
pulled their money out of Mexican investments and put it into Swiss
bank accounts, declaring
no confidence in Mexico's economy.

Millions of Mexicans and central Americans began migrating north.
Marketing agencies recognized the "clout" of the expanding market
amongst Mexican customers and the department store and grocery chains
latched onto Cinco de Mayo as an opportunity to move a lot of clothing
and groceries.

The beer companies recognized Cinco de Mayo as a chance to sell a lot
of beer to White college kids partying in April and May.

Mexicans were the first to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, 150 years ago.

When Texas gained its independence from Mexico, the Mexicans who chose
to remain there did not want to return to Mexico and they did not want
to "lose" their
mestizo culture either.

So they celebrated two "fiestas patrias", Mexican Independence day on
September 16th and Cinco de Mayo. The Mexican consulate and the
Comision Honorifica Mexicana would organize the fiestas patrias.

However, Mexicans living in Texas gradually became a separate people
who never planned to return to Mexico and they wanted Cinco de Mayo to
be a celebration of Chicano barrio culture as it was in the 1950's and
1960's.

About 1978, Mexicans in Houston told the Mexican consulate that they
wanted their Cinco de Mayo celebration to be about *themselves* and
their "struggle against oppression" against "police brutality".

Mexicans living in America are not really that much into dressing like
charros and doing the Mexican hat dance and listening to mariachi
music. Those aspects of Mexican culture are less important than
lowering a Chevy and putting chrome wheels on it.

So, Saturday's revival of the traditional Cinco de Mayo celebration in
Visalia, California included a car hopping contest and display of
customized "low rider" cars and there were a lot of tattooed Mexicans
who dressed like gang bangers making themselves very visible.

Cinco de Mayo in Visalia was more like a car club meeting than a
celebration of an obscure 19th century event in Mexico.

Mexicans who attended the Porterville, California Cinco de Mayo
parades for the last two years have complained that they just weren't
the same as they had been in past years and one Mexican woman
suggested that the traditional Mexican culture was "going down".

I haven't heard anything about the Santa Barbara Cinco de Mayo
fesitivities yet, beyond a comment that "low riders" from other
barrios were coming to Santa Barbara.

A lot of the American party animals had been talking about boycotting
the celebration because of the rise in violent Mexican gang activities
on State Street, the typical party venue for wealthy college kids.