Cinco de Mayo

In 1861, a bankrupt Mexico suspended payments on loans to three European creditors, Spain, Britain, and France. Spain and Britain negotiated. France didn't. Napoleon III saw an opportunity to install a French-backed monarchy in the Americas and sent 6,000+ well-equipped troops to take Mexico. The French were considered the finest army in the world at the time.

On May 5, 1862, the French army reached the city of Puebla. General Ignacio Zaragoza commanded the Mexican defenders: 4,000 poorly-equipped soldiers, many of them untrained. By every reasonable military calculation, Puebla should have fallen in a day. Instead, the Mexicans, using terrain, timing, and sheer ferocity, routed the French in a single afternoon, killing 500+ French soldiers while losing fewer than 100 of their own.

The victory didn't end the war, the French eventually took Mexico City a year later and installed Maximilian I as emperor. But it was the last time a European power launched a successful military invasion anywhere in the Americas. And it became a powerful symbol: an outnumbered people defeating an imperial power. Mexico celebrates the day as the Batalla de Puebla a regional holiday mostly observed in Puebla itself.

In the United States, Cinco de Mayo evolved into something different. Mexican-Americans in California began celebrating it during the 1860s as a point of pride and a rallying cry. During the Chicano civil rights movement of the 1960s-70s, it became a national Mexican-American cultural celebration. Beer and tequila companies in the 1980s poured marketing dollars into it. Today, it's an American holiday with Mexican roots, and the responsibility that comes with celebrating someone else's heritage is to do it with real respect.

Four rules for honoring Cinco de Mayo properly:

Six dishes that showcase the depth of Mexican regional cooking, most American "Mexican food" barely scratches the surface: