Cinco de Mayo, Mexicans and Mothers....

I am not an expert at being Mexican, nor do I know all things Mexican. That being said, I LOVE being an American of Mexican descent! I am not a Mexi-Can't, someone who is ashamed of our heritage. I celebrate my beautiful golden brown skin color,(Thanks Dad!), I fumble around when I speak my Spanglish, and I can dance the cumbia! My madre was born in Mexico as was her mother and her mother's mother. Since both my paternal grandparents were born in Texas, I am definitely an American first. Yet at times, my heart is pulled back and forth between these two countries.

Cinco de Mayo is known as Cinco de Drinko to many, however I take offense at that. Sure most celebrations include libations but that is not the reason for this quasi-American holiday.

I would like you to imagine that you are a poor Mexican famer living in Pueblo, Mexico some hundred plus years ago, and the ruler of France, Napoleon III is coming to take your land. You don't own any guns, have little or no money but by golly you have your land!  6,500 of Napoleon's best dressed troops landed just off of VeraCruz not prepared for what they got. May 5th is about frustration reaching the boiling point. When you are willing to face an organized army outfitted with lots of big guns and you are armed only with a pitchfork, a scythe maybe a machete; then you are fed up and ready to affect change, wreak havoc or die trying.

When I think of those people and the uphill battle they had to face, I am proud, so proud of my heritage. I have the very same feeling every Fourth of July, when I see fireworks popping over the Red, White and Blue. What ties both of these events for me is that I love the struggle, the fight to be FREE! Because I am American, I love our country, I love our forefathers, but mostly I love the documents that they left behind for us to follow. A distinction between the two countries not lost on me. 

My mother used to take me to Cinco de Mayo Fiestas in Dallas. As a child, I loved the music, the smells of food cooking everywhere, the Ballet Folklorico Dances and the Mariachis! I felt closest to my family then, because they were so happy to be amongst friends and their family celebrating what's good about Mexico and it's history.

Happy Cinco de Mayo, Remember the Battlia de Pueblo.

Viva Mexico, Viva Independencia, Viva La Libertad!