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Always glad to be of service, I note that in Sunday's Post, one Carl J. Strunk of Bailey asked if someone could please explain to him why anyone on this side of the Rio Grande would celebrate Cinco de Mayo.
The celebration last week was not a major production here. Kirby Perschbacher and I reasoned along these lines:
1. Negra Modelo, a dark and malty beer, is the finest cerveza in this hemisphere. It is also expensive.
2. Many establishments reduce the price of Mexican beers on Cinco de Mayo.
3. Therefore, Cinco de Mayo is a good time to enjoy a few good beers.
Granted, we had to remind the saloonkeeper of the date and its local significance (this nether side of the Arkansas River was, after all, Mexican territory from 1821 until it was claimed by the Republic of Texas in 1836). After our impassioned plea, the publican did agree to reduce the price of the next round by 25 cents a bottle.
That is one excellent reason to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, which honors a battle on May 5, 1862 at Puebla, Mexico.
At the time, Napoleon III was trying to convert Mexico into a French satellite; he put an army ashore at Veracruz with orders to march inland and take Mexico City, just as the Americans did in 1847.
The city of Puebla stood in the way, and when Gen. Charles Latrille Laurencez ordered a frontal assault, Mexican troops under Gen. Ignacio Zaragoza repelled the invaders, inflicting such heavy casualties that the French had to retreat.
It was a glorious victory, though it must be noted that the French returned a year later and besieged Pueblo for two months before taking it. Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph, archduke of Austria, was set up as a puppet emperor in 1864 and reigned until he met the firing squad in 1867.
So in the long run, the battle of May 5, 1862 did not keep the French from conquering Mexico, and the French weren't able to hold it, anyway.
But we 100-percent non-hyphenated Americans should know that the battle of Puebla was also a victory for the Lincoln Administration, which did not want to see the Monroe Doctrine violated with a French satrap in Mexico.
And even if I lack any Hebrew ancestry (in fact, in matters of taste, I'm pretty much a philistine), I still cheered for the little guy in Sunday School and felt elated that David beat Goliath. To my knowledge, none of my forebears ever lived by the Adriatic Sea, but I still felt inspired when I learned that the greatly outnumbered Greeks defeated Xerxes at the Battle of Salamis. And similarly, when I blundered into a Cinco de Mayo festival once and learned why there was a party, I joined with gusto.
After all, Goliath generally wins. Those rare setbacks to the Goliath side ought be cause for rejoicing by all good people, no matter what their ancestry. So, Mr. Strunk, that's why one gringo celebrates Cinco de Mayo.
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