05 May 2010

It's Cinco de Mayo!

Rico says that those who didn't grow up in a Latinized environment, as he did in California as a boy, may not have any appreciation for today, the Fifth of May: "Cinco de Mayo is a holiday commemorating the Mexican army's unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on 5 May 1862, under the leadership of Mexican General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín."
When it happened, of course, America was a little distracted, what with Da Wawah going on at the time, but, according to Wikipedia, "the holiday, which has been celebrated in California continuously since 1863, is virtually ignored in Mexico".
Rico says he's gonna go out and have some Mexican food at lunchtime to celebrate. (Hey, it was the French they beat, after all, but on 30 April 1863 the French had a splendid victory at Camarón, near Palo Verde, where the French Foreign Legion, under the command of Captain Jean Danjou, with only 60-some soldiers, delayed a Mexico force of 800 cavalry and 1200 infantry. Danjou swore that 'the Legion does not surrender', and that battle is celebrated each year by the Legion as Camerone Day, when the wooden prosthetic hand of Capitaine Danjou is brought out for display and veneration in special ceremonies at the Legion headquarters at Aubagne, France. After hearing of the battle, French Emperor Napoleon III had the name Camerone embroidered onto the flag of the Foreign Legion. In 1892, a monument commemorating the battle was erected on the battlefield containing a plaque with the following inscription (in French):"Here were less than sixty opposed to a whole army. Its mass crushed them. Life rather than bravery gave up these French soldiers at Camerone on 30 April 1863. In memory of them, the fatherland has erected this monument".)

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