| A rendering of the Battle of Pueblo from www.vivacincodemayo.com. |
For the third straight year East Carbon City will be celebrating Cinco de Mayo with community events and entertainment. The festivities will begin with at 8 a.m. on May 10 with the firefighter breakfast at the Viking Memorial Park.
Following the breakfast the community will move to Miners Trading Post where the event’s parade will be staged. The parade is open to all community members and children are encouraged to decorate their bikes and participate in the trek that will leave Miners at 10 a.m., lead by grand marshal Alex Pacheco, and finish at the Viking Park kicking off the rest of the days festivities.
At 12:30 the celebration will be inducted by the recital of both the American and Mexican pledge of allegiance and national anthems. The events that are to follow will include an appearance by Miss Carbon County Danielle Martino, various dancers and entertainers and a history of the Mexican holiday.
A dance deejayed by Jimmy Allen will conclude the celebration with food being served at 7 p.m. and dancing at 8 p.m.
Cinco de Mayo, or the fifth of May is a national holiday in Mexico and is also celebrated in many places within the United States.
The celebration commemorates the victory of Mexican forces led by General Icona Zaragosa, over the French occupational forces in the Battle of Puebla on May, 5 1862.
It is a common misconception that Cinco de Mayo is Mexico’s Independence Day. That holiday is celebrated on Sept. 16 and is called “Diecisies de septiembre” in Spanish.
Cinco de Mayo is the celebration of a battle in which 4,000 Mexican soldiers smashed the French and traitor Mexican army of 8,000 at Puebla, 100 miles east of Mexico city, according to vivacincodemayo.org.
The site reports that under the command of Texas born General Zaragosa and Colonel Porfirio Diaz, Mexican soldiers waited for the French to attack during the morning hours of 1862, while their cavalry was directed to the flank of the charging French.
When the French sent their cavalry to chase Diaz and his men they were butchered. The remaining French infantrymen charged Mexican defenders and were cut down.
The story does not conclude their however, according to wikipedia.com, although the Mexican army was victorious over the French at Puebla, the victory only delayed the French advance on Mexico City; a year later the French would occupy Mexico.
The French occupying forces placed Maximilian I, Emperor of Mexico on the throne of Mexico. The French were eventually defeated and expelled in 1867. Maximilian was executed by President Benito Juarez, five years after the Battle of Puebla.
According to the site, the United States supplied Mexico with weapons and ammunition to make sure they had the force needed to expel the French. The Mexican victory kept Napoleon III from supplying the confederate army aiding the U.S. in concluding the civil war 14 months after the Battle of Puebla.
“The Mexicans never forgot who their friends are and neither do the Americans,” according to vivacincodemayo.com. “That is why Cinco de Mayo is such a party, a party that celebrates freedom and liberty.”
Wikipedia further explains that all over the world, “Cinco de Mayo has taken on a significance to rival that in Mexico. From the U.S. to as far away a Malta, in the Mediterranean, revelers are encouraged to drink Mexican beer on May 5.”