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Often, our Special Agents answer questions that are so timely that they are inclined to do further research. So here is our Agents choice for question of the day:

Q:  So what is Cinco de Mayo anyway?
A:  May 5th (Cinco de Mayo) marks the victory of the Mexican Army over the French at the Battle of Puebla.

The scoop:

Cinco de Mayo serves as an important date for the Mexican and Chicano communities.  It marks the victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla in 1862.  This battles distinguishes itself as a symbol of Mexican patriotism and unity.

In actuality, Mexican independence occurred about 50 years later in 1910, but Cinco de Mayo continues to serve as that symbol of freedom.

Cinco de Mayo is more heavily celebrated in the United States than in Mexico.  Parades, mariachi music, folklore dancing and other activities are common.

As might be expected, in the face of swine flu, Cinco de Mayo celebrations are expected to be more subdued this year.

kgb_   Text your question to 542542. We answer to you.

Source: http://clnet.ucla.edu/cinco.html

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Tags: Battle of Puebla, Chicano, Cinco de Mayo, Mexico, swine flu, United States

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 5th, 2009 at 5:00 am and is filed under Dallas, Fact Of The Day, Question of the Week, What Does America Really Want to Know?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.