Junior Bella Layman said she wants more people to know the real history behind Cinco de Mayo before they celebrate this year.

“I think the general American thinks that Cinco de Mayo is Independence Day (for Mexicans). They haven’t researched it; they just assume,” Layman said.

According to a May 2015 CBS Washington article about Cinco de Mayo, celebrating the holiday in America is a common occurrence, but many people often have little knowledge regarding its actual history and why the holiday is celebrated.

The commercialization of the holiday in the United States has led many Americans to celebrate, despite having several misconceptions of what the holiday actually stands for.

As such, American celebrations often consist of eating tacos and drinking margaritas.

Because of this, some people believe that Cinco de Mayo represents the day Mexicans gained their independence from Spain.

In fact, Cinco de Mayo actually commemorates an unexpected victory in battle against the French in 1862 in the city of Puebla, which is located in East-Central Mexico.

Following the end of the Mexican-American War in 1848, the French forces occupied Mexico.

On May 5 that year, a French army of 6,000 attacked a poorly-equipped  and vastly outnumbered Mexican army of about 2,000.

The battle ended with a Mexican victory, against all odds.

Though the series of battles eventually culminated in a French victory that established the Austrian-born Maximilian as emperor of Mexico, the Mexican success at Puebla provided a source of unity and spirit for the Mexican people during the war.

Today, Cinco de Mayo celebrations do occur in the Puebla area.

In contrast, today, most other regions of Mexico don’t often celebrate the holiday.

Layman said, “(Cinco de Mayo is) like the battle of the Alamo for Americans. That’s what Cinco de

Mayo is for Mexicans. It doesn’t really bother me, but I kind of wish that people would do more research on Cinco de Mayo instead of assuming things.”

According to Spanish teacher Gabriela Mendoza, who is a native Mexican, Americans commonly assume Cinco de Mayo is a country-wide celebration in Mexico.

This, however, is not the real case, Mendoza said.

Mendoza said she and her family also do not celebrate Cinco de Mayo, even though they live in the United States.

“The thing that’s interesting about (celebrating Cinco de Mayo) is that in Mexico, it’s not really something that’s widely celebrated apart from (in) that (Puebla) area,” Mendoza said. “I’m from Michoacán, and most of my family lives here in the (United States), but for us, Cinco de Mayo is not really a big holiday. We don’t really acknowledge it; we just kind of go about our day (as normal).”
In fact, Mendoza said she did not learn about Cinco de Mayo until her school taught her about it.

“I learned about Cinco de Mayo when I was in elementary school here in the United States,” she said.

Layman said her family does not celebrate the holiday extensively as well.

She said, “(My family and I), we celebrate it just as a battle. But, we don’t really go too far. We just acknowledge it. We don’t celebrate it like Thanksgiving or anything. We just acknowledge that it was a really important battle in Mexican history.”

Mendoza and Layman said in their previous experiences, it’s pretty common that Americans are generally not too knowledgeable  about the true history and meaning of the holiday.

According to Mendoza, CHS Spanish classes include lessons about Cinco de Mayo as part of the school’s curriculum.

Mendoza said usually, her students do not have much prior knowledge regarding the actual Cinco de Mayo story.

“It varies,” Mendoza said. “Some students know that it’s not the Mexican independence day, so I think that’s a good start, and some of them just know it as a Mexican holiday. They don’t know exactly what it is. And then, some students do know that it was a battle that took place in Puebla against the French. That’s all they usually know.”

Mendoza said she thinks Americans  as a whole have become more aware of the real story behind the holiday in recent years.

“I think it is getting better, or maybe people are talking about it more. I think people are starting to realize that it’s more than just a holiday to go out and eat tacos and go out to restaurants because it’s being promoted, and people are telling you that they have Cinco de Mayo specials going on,” Mendoza said. “I’ve seen a lot of things online, people trying to educate other people; so they’ll share links about what Cinco de Mayo is, and why maybe if you don’t know what you’re really celebrating, maybe don’t just go out and celebrate a holiday because it might turn out that it’s not something that people of that country or culture should celebrate.”

According to Mendoza, social media has played a major part in the recent increased knowledge about Cinco de Mayo and other ethnic holidays.

“It’s really easy for everyone to get their opinions out there. People have easy access to the internet; they can look up their own information on what they want to learn about, so some awareness has changed over time,” she said.

Mendoza said she believes Americans celebrate the holiday because of a strong influence of consumerism today.

“I think that in general, we have a very (consumer-oriented) society overall, so anytime there’s anything that can be celebrated, the food industry and everything just kind of pushes for it. I think it’s just to up the sales of food and beverages.”

Tracy Kurker, owner of the Twenty Tap restaurant in Indianapolis, said she often does holiday-related specials at her restaurant.

According to Kurker, restaurants are often at their busiest during holiday weekends like Cinco de Mayo.

“On holidays like that, people go and drink, first and foremost. The food does go along with it,” Kurker said.

Layman said she herself has witnessed this during Cinco de Mayo.

“Oh yeah, the thing is a lot of Mexican restaurants, too, go along with it; they sell more things that way,” Layman said.

Layman said she has observed Americans who celebrate the holiday by drinking and going to Mexican restaurants, but this situation is not truly reflective how people in Puebla celebrate.

“My mom said that they have a party and a festival, and they all get together in the town and eat dinner and celebrate,” Layman said. “It was one of the wars that led to their independence.”

Mendoza said, “I think as people are starting to realize that (although) it is a holiday in Mexico, it’s not something that is as widely celebrated as is publicized by the media or restaurants; then they kind of start to feel fooled by these places, just to kind of have another excuse to go out to eat. I don’t think people like being tricked like that.”

However, Mendoza said she thinks that there are indeed some positives to Americans celebrating the holiday.

She said she thinks that going to ethnic restaurants can be a positive way to learn new things about a different culture.

“Social media has really given people an opportunity to see things from other people’s perspectives. So, maybe some people will think about going out to a restaurant and having (Mexican) food because it’s Cinco de Mayo, and maybe they’ll post something about it, and someone else would see it who knows a little bit more about it and maybe just have a conversation about why they’re celebrating it and what the real holiday is about,” Mendoza said. “It’s a real opportunity for people to talk about it, and it’s so easy now for everyone to communicate that. We can all kind of learn a bit more about each other.”

Mendoza said there is one thing that bothers her about Americans who celebrate the holiday, though.

“On Cinco de Mayo, there’s a lot of support for going out and eating Mexican food and dressing up like Mexicans and wearing ponchos and sombreros. Why do we support holidays like Cinco de Mayo, but then when we’re trying to have a conversation about what to do with a lot of immigrants that are here without legal status, why are people not still going to talk about that and be open to (other) ideas?” Mendoza said.

Mendoza said she finds this to be somewhat incongruous.

“It’s kind of choosing and picking what you want from other groups of people that are represented in the (United States). I think that’s a little offensive. Seeing everyone post about ‘Oh, Cinco de Mayo!’ So, everyone’s Mexican now? When you see all these news reports about children being here from Mexico and families being separated and deported, but (it’s) not from everyone who was out celebrating Cinco de Mayo,” she said.

Layman said she ultimately wishes that Americans just knew more about the holiday and Mexican history.

“I would like that they get maybe a history lesson in schools in the (United States) about Mexico and what (Cinco de Mayo) means.Our independence in Mexico is so important to us, and that people assume that Cinco de Mayo is (Independence Day), it can hurt Mexicans’ feelings. Just being aware that it’s not independence for Mexico is a big thing,” she said. “They celebrate it, but they don’t really know what they’re celebrating.”