You won’t be finding this in the Disney cartoon history of America, and I would bet few Hispanic activists even know…
After losing the Mexican American war, a civil war broke out in Mexico between forces who wanted the country to be run by the Roman Catholic Church and those who wanted a secular country. The reformers wanted to create a secular country patterned after the United States.
Benito Juárez – a brown skinned native Mexican – was elected President of Mexico in 1858, after living in exile in New Orleans opposing the orders of Santa Ana – a white Spanish immigrant. Juárez did not speak Spanish, only his native Mexican language.
Catholics in Europe (mostly Spain and France) funded an attempt to overthrow the democratically elected secular government of Juárez, a government that was supported by Abraham Lincoln The country went heavily into debt as a result.
When Mexico announced it was temporarily going to suspect payments on its foreign debt, France sent its military to oust Juárez. The first attempt at the French invasion was repelled by Mexicans on May 5th, 1862 (hence the name of the celebration). But on the second attempt, France quickly defeated Mexico and seized Mexico City and control of the government. Juárez was overthrown and replaced by a French Enperor.
The United States was concerned that France and Mexico were going to align with the Confederacy. The Civil War was raging – the South had originally believed France was going to support the secession, but backed off after Lincoln threatened war with France.
Once the Civil War ended, the United States provided political and military support to expel the French from Mexico, and Juárez was returned to power. That regime lasted until 1917, when the current Mexican Constitution was written.
I was not aware of this holiday until my first time living in Chicago around 1990. One weekend, I was driving on the North side of Chicago, near Evanston and passed hundreds of cars flying the flag of Mexico. I probably didn’t even recognize the flag at the time.
So the notion that Cinco de Mayo is an anti Anglo, anti American holiday is bizarre. The United States government supported a native Mexican leader expelling European influence. Later on, the United States would fight the Spanish American war to end Spanish rule in Cuba and Puerto Rico.
While there were a few Trump piñata bashings, Trump used the day to announce that he loves Hispanics. What a racist he is!
LOL! Too much. America bashing is all Cinco de Mayo is about. Liberals and Progressives don’t let facts get in the way of their stated goals, so the history lesson will be lost on them. They believe it is all about Mexican independence – that’s all they want to know.
Dumb America down – there isn’t much time left before the Walking Dead take over.
My error – the LOL filter is on the show topic entry. Parrot gets stuck a lot.
Back in my IRC days, I had a script to auto play a lol sound every time someone LOLs. It was a kind of aversion therapy.
>When Mexico announced it was temporarily going to suspect payments on its foreign debt, France sent its military to oust Juárez.
When Puerto Rick recently announced it was suspending payments on its debt to American investors, our elected representatives sent in proposed legislation to stiff the American investors.
I wonder why we liberated Cuba but hung on to the other Spanish colonies (including the Phillipines) as possessions. I’ve never been to Puerto Rico, but for the slums of New York City to be a better place to live suggests it is a hellhole (or the freebies are better in the big apple)
I believe the military wanted outposts and that those outposts were good waypoints for trading.