Loretta Sanchez releases a statement on Cinco de Mayo

Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, Representing California’s 46th Congressional District

STATEMENT, FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 5, 2014

MEDIA CONTACT: Barb Solish, 202-226-8373, Barb.Solish@mail.house.gov

REP. LORETTA SANCHEZ RELEASES STATEMENT ON CINCO DE MAYO

Garden Grove, Calif. – Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez (CA-46) today released the following statement in recognition of Cinco de Mayo, which commemorates the Battle of Puebla when the Mexican militia defended their country against the imperial French army in 1862.

“Cinco de Mayo means more than serving margaritas and chips at a party. Today we celebrate the rich history of our Mexican neighbors and of the millions of Mexican-Americans who have contributed so much to the United States. From classrooms to Congress, from boardrooms to the battlefield, Mexican-Americans are part of what makes our country so strong. I am proud to count myself among them and to represent such a vibrant Mexican-American community in Orange County.”

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Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez is proud to represent California’s 46th Congressional District, which includes the cities of Anaheim, Santa Ana, and parts of the cities of Garden Grove and Orange in Orange County. She serves as Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces and the second ranked Democrat on the Committee on Homeland Security. Rep. Sanchez is also a member of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition and sits on the bipartisan, bicameral Joint Economic Committee.

Editor’s Note – Here is how the OC Weekly describes Cinco de Mayo, which they refer to as “Gringo de Mayo:”

Gringo de Mayo

By Gustavo Arellano, OC Weekly

Cinco de Mayo is ridiculous. It’s not pointless because it serves the nationalist project of promoting pride in a country and its culture. And it isn’t worthless, since it has worked like a charm in making Mexicans out of all ethnicities come May 5, even if the extent of commitment toward México lindo y querido is drinking Corona instead of Coors.

But celebrating Cinco de Mayo is ridiculous because it commemorates a victory that ultimately meant nothing. Sure, General Ignacio Zaragoza and his troops held off the French that glorious day of May 5, 1862, in Puebla, but the Mexican triumph was short-lived. When the French and Mexicans fought a year later on the same battlefield, the French whipped some Mexican pompi and ushered in a five-year occupation under the Hapsburg Maximillian.

I write not to diminish the actual event; Zaragoza‘s impoverished soldiers deserve our admiration for decimating what was then one of the world’s best armies. But celebrating Cinco de Mayo is like remembering Tennyson’s “Charge of the Light Brigade” for the charge while conveniently forgetting the massacre at the end.

Many people regard Cinco de Mayo as a celebration of resistance to imperial power. If only that were so. The events of that day didn’t prohibit the French from turning Mexico into their Latin American playground. Mexicans taste the French legacy every morning in their pan dulce and tortas. Teenagers listlessly practice it in quinceañera waltzes. Men yelp their approval to our French conquerors whenever the mariachi violins begin their pizzicato coda.

Despite this, many Mexicans continue to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. ¿Por qué? The Nobel laureate Octavio Paz had a theory. Examining the Mexican propensity to party, Paz wrote, “The explosive, dramatic, sometimes even suicidal manner in which we strip ourselves, surrender ourselves is evidence that something inhibits and suffocates us. Something impedes us from being. And since we cannot or dare not confront our own selves, we resort to the fiesta.”

There’s something there. Strangely, Mexicans enjoy harping over the country’s inability to defeat foreign aggressors

Click here to read the rest of the OC Weekly’s Gringo de Mayo article.