Cinco de Mayo!

I love holidays. I wish America adopted more holidays from around the world. Of all of them, I guess St. Patrick's Day and Cinco de Mayo are at the top that are actually celebrated here. Gosh, St. Paddy's is celebrated more here than in Ireland. Anyway, Taylor and I were discussing Cinco de Mayo earlier today and realized we weren't exactly too sure about what we were celebrating. It's been a long time since Spanish class in high school and I've never been to a Spanish-speaking country (besides America of course). So I did a little Google action (of course), and thought I'd bring a little information in a nice compact format here:

• Cinco de Mayo marks the victory of the Mexican Army over the French at the Battle of Puebla in 1862, but this is NOT Mexican Independence Day (which is September 16, 1810), because Mexico eventually lost to the French.
• Holding onto true nationalism, the "Batalla de Puebla" came to represent a symbol of Mexican unity and patriotism.
• Rumour has it that the French wanted to create an empire in America under Napolean III which is why the French stayed after the Spanish and English had left.
• Cinco de Mayo has become more of a Chicano holiday than a Mexican one, and really, according to my sources, has become quite commercialized.
• And similar to the Irish, the holiday is celebrated much more in America than in Mexico.

There you have it. There's a lot more to it, many more names, but I think that's enough for one year. But we all know I love a good party, so grab a Corona, some salsa, and some overcooked beans. It's a day of celebration! I can't wait to work at the OG tonight...I'm going to tell all my tables about this great day and make up a reason why it relates to all things Italian.