Crazy Eddie's Motie News: The history of Cinco De Mayo, a Flashback Friday holiday special

¡Feliz Cinco De Mayo! After showing how Detroit celebrates Cinco De Mayo last year, I'm returning to the history lessons with The real history behind Cinco de Mayo and the importance of May 5th from CBS 8 San Diego.

Every year thousands of Americans crowd intro their favorite bars and restaurants for Cinco de Mayo. Many use it as the prefect excuse to go out for a drink or favorite Mexican meal, but the majority don’t know the real history behind Cinco de Mayo.

“It’s not Cinco de drinko, that’s off the table and it’s also not Mexican Independence Day," said Gerardo Rios, a professor of Mexican American studies and history at Southwestern College.

Rios explains why the fifth of May is an important date in Mexican history.

“What Cinco de Mayo celebrates is the Mexican liberal victory over the French forces that had invaded Mexico," said Rios.

In 1862, a powerful French army led by Napoleon III was sent to invade the country, and even though they outnumbered the Mexican army, they were met with a strong resistance in the Mexican state of Puebla.

"Cinco de drinko" — on the one hand, ha! On the other, I'm being a good environmentalist by recycling what I wrote last year.

Alex Bozarjian, who I first featured on Fat Tuesday, opened by sharing the sentiment that "everyone's Irish on St. Patrick's Day, everyone's Polish on Paczki Day, and today everyone's Mexican." That's both good and bad — good because of the melting pot/salad bowl nature of being American, so we can celebrate our diverse but now shared heritage, and bad because people are treating Cinco De Mayo like they treat St. Patrick's Day, as a drinking holiday. That shouldn't be a surprise, as the importers of Mexican beer and spirits helped promote it during the past several decades.

I'm going to refrain from posting a drink recipe today after I share KSAT 12 in San Antonio's account of the day's history and significance in Cinco de Mayo: UIW professor explains its origins and significance.

Many people celebrate Cinco de Mayo by drinking or eating Mexican-inspired dishes, however, some may not know its historical origins. Cinco de Mayo is celebrated on May 5, after the Mexican Army defeated the invading French Army in the Battle of Puebla in 1862.

Self-determination — that's something I'd never heard before as a reason for the celebration, but I like it.

Since I'm refraining from posting a drink recipe and also because this is a metro-Detroit-based blog, I'm ending the video portion of this post with WXYZ's Southwest Detroit businesses ready for Cinco de Mayo celebrations this weekend.

Southwest Detroit's rich culture and cuisine will be on display this weekend as the country celebrates Cinco de Mayo. Alma Cruz, a proud Mexican-American, said Cinco de Mayo represents the day the Mexican Army defeated the French in the Battle of Puebla, showing perseverance.

I feel lucky to be able to embed this video, as WXYZ blocks that feature on most of its uploads. Let's see if they catch it on this video.

Since today is a Flashback Friday as well as a holiday, I'm sharing a retrospective of the most saved pins from this blog on Pinterest last year. As I wrote in PBS Eons and SciShow on Piltdown Man for April Fools Day, a Science Saturday holiday special, "the most saved pins of posts last year were about holidays, animals, or pirates, in that order."

I begin with a pin from an entry posted on a holiday about pirates, Higher oil prices because of attack on Saudi facility plus driving update for Pearl on Talk Like A Pirate Day, which rose from fifth last year to first this year with 30 saves, including at least one during twelve consecutive months from April 2022 to March 2023.

Silly Squirrels for Happy Wester 2017! and Snow Leopards: Student Sustainability Video Festival 55 tied for the second most saved pins last year with 13 each. The former featured the animal mascot of a fake holiday, while the latter was just about animals. The former did not make the top twelve last year while the latter rose from eleventh last year to second this year.

Last year's second place pin, Driving update for June 2017: Pearl plus Tesla worth more than GM or Ford, slipped from second to fourth with nine saves.

Happy Year of the Metal Ox!, Happy Persian New Year and Happy Birthday to Twitter and this blog, and Star Wars Drinks for Star Wars Day all tied for fifth with eight saves each. The first did not make the top twelve last year, the second technically inched up from sixth to a tie for fifth — the mathematicians and statisticians can argue about that, but I'm moving on — and the last fell from fourth.

Fall back as Daylight Saving Time ends for 2015 rose from outside the top twelve last year to eighth this year with four saves.

History Channel on the history of Labor Day and Drink to a drum corps Bastille Day 2018 with the Santa Clara Vanguard tied for ninth with three saves each. The former did not make the cut last year while the latter rose three places from twelfth. Congratulations on making the night show for a third year. Too bad the same can't be said about the actual Santa Clara Vanguard, which sadly won't be competing this year.

All of the above came from the back catalog. Now for the pins saved by other Pinterest users from the 2022-2023 blogging year.

I begin with the pins with two saves last year, technically tying them all for eleventh. Those are: 'Nightmare Alley' leads Thriller Films at the Saturn Awards tied for second most saved pin during October 2022 with two saves and was one of two pins saved from the current blogging year; Colbert examines Rupert Murdoch's deposition, DeSantis's book, and Sedition Panda's arrest had two saves during the first 20 days of March 2023 and was one of two pins saved from the current blogging year and month; and 'SNL' opens by spoofing the last January 6th Committee hearing tied for second most saved pin during October 2022 with two saves and was one of two pins saved from the current blogging year and the only pin saved from October 2022.

Now the pins from the twelfth year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News with one save each.

'The Black Phone' vs. 'A Quiet Place Part II' and 'Last Night in Soho' for Best Horror Film at the Saturn Awards and Vox asks and answers 'Who's really using up the water in the American West?' were the pins saved from September 2022 as well as the current blogging year. Desi Lydic, an Emmy-nominated performer, Foxsplains the January 6th Committee Hearings was the third pin from the current blogging year saved during September 2022.

Star Wars drinks and music for Revenge of the Sixth on Flashback Friday and CNBC examines 'How The Supreme Court May Threaten Democracy' were the two pins from the 2022-2023 blogging year saved during June 2022. The latter was the only pin from June 2022 saved during the month I posted it.

PBS Terra shows how past redlining leads to heat wave deaths in the present and future was the only pin saved for the current blogging year and month during August 2022.

MSNBC reporting on Warnock winning the Georgia Senate runoff was the only pin from the current month and year saved during December 2022.

'Everything Everywhere All at Once' — part 2 of diversity in awards show winners for the week of MLK Day was the only pin from the current blogging year and month to be saved during January 2023.

Seth Meyers takes a closer look at the Fox News-Dominion lawsuit and 'SNL' sends up Trump's visit to the train derailment site in Ohio in its cold open and Weekend Update were the only pins from the current blogging year and month to be saved during February 2023.

John Oliver discusses Ron DeSantis was the other pin from the first 20 days of March 2023 saved that month.

I have one post left in this series, which is about the blog's year on Twitter. Stay tuned for that either when or after I celebrate Revenge of the Sixth, the dark side of Star Wars Day.

Previous posts in this series

Previous retrospectives about Pinterest

Previous retrospectives about the back catalog.

Crazy Eddie's Motie News

Friday, May 5, 2023

The history of Cinco De Mayo, a Flashback Friday holiday special

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