TL;DR – Mexican- Americans promoted the obscure day to promote good neighbor relations; or there is a good chance Cinco de Mayo was made popular by beer salesmen in Texas looking for a holiday in between St. Patrick’s Day and USA Independence day (4th of July).
a few Fiestas/parties in Bangkok:
- Sat. & Sun: Fatty’s Bar & Diner Cuatro-Cinco de Mayo
- Sun: Cholos
- Sun: Billy’s, La Martina, We Hungry, Cinco de Mayo Fiesta
Cinco de Mayo (May 5th) is a fun holiday to enjoy (Tex-)Mexican food and beer, even in Bangkok. Although its not always clear to party-goers where the holiday comes from. So, for everyone that might be interested, here is some more information.
Cinco de Mayo is NOT Mexican Independence day
Mexican Independence day is September 16th (1810).
May 5th, the Battle of Puebla
Cinco De Mayo commemorates a Mexican victory over the French in 1862. Generally its not a nation-wide celebrated day, except maybe in Puebla, where the battle took place.
Picture from National Geographic article.
Mexico & USA, Good Neighbors in the 50’s and 60’s
Cinco de Mayo gained its first popularity in the U.S. in the 1950s and 1960s, partly because of an outpouring of brotherly love, José Alamillo, who was then a professor of ethnic studies at Washington State University, told National Geographic in 2006.
National Geographic
“The reason it became more popular was in part because of the Good Neighbor policy,” he said, referring to a U.S. government effort at the time to reach out to neighboring countries.
“Cinco de Mayo’s purpose was to function as a bridge between these two cultures,” Alamillo said.
How can we sell more beer?
For the more cynical of us, there is also the story that beer salesmen were looking for a holiday in between the great beer selling holidays of St. Patricks Day in March, and US Independence day in July. Right between the two is Cinco de Mayo.
In the early 1980s, Anheuser-Busch and Miller Company created Hispanic Marketing departments and began sponsoring Cinco de Mayo celebrations, according to Norman K. Denzin’s Studies In Symbolic Interaction. In 1989 a party sponsored by Anheurser-Busch turned into a drunken riot, and latino activists accused the company of “pushing a legalized drug upon our community.”
Business Insider
