Seems like everybody saw that “Adam Ruins Everything” sketch but I literally cannot even discuss Cinco De Mayo without somebody (usually white/American) going WELL ACTUALLY CINCO DE MAYO IS AN AMERICAN HOLIDAY NOT CELEBRATED IN REAL MEXICO. Which is pretty offensive since I’m Mexican myself and I celebrate it, why else would I bring it up?
I can’t even talk about my plans on Facebook without a half-dozen people chiming in with that exact same thing. Even CNN was running front page news stories about how CINCO DE MAYO FACTS: NOT ACTUALLY CELEBRATED IN MEXICO.
Is there a reason now the holiday is more about who doesn’t celebrate as opposed to who does? The fact there’s 35 million Mexican and Mexican-Americans living in the United States who all seem to celebrate it means there’s enough actual "fake Mexicans"who celebrate it as opposed to the 110 million “real Mexicans” who don’t.
I think the point of it is that people think that Americans think that it’s like Independence Day in Mexico. I don’t know if Americans really think that, but people think that Americans do, and want to correct them that Mexicans may celebrate the day, but it’s not their independence day. Of course, there are less smart people who take that and run it further from “Mexicans don’t celebrate it like the Fourth of the July here” to “Mexicans really don’t celebrate it that much” to "“Mexicans don’t celebrate it at all.”
Are the facts in dispute? I’m asking; I don’t really known. Is it mostly not celebrated in Mexico? That would seem to make it a Mexican-American holiday rather than a Mexican one. I know it’s not Mexican Independence Day. It marks a battle won which was fairly quickly offset by French victories. Independence didn’t come for some number of years (5?).
It wold not be the only such holiday. Until recently, St. Patrick’s Day was not celebrated in Ireland like it is here. It was much more a solemn occasion.
There’s a scene in Big Trouble in Little China where Egg Shen says “There’s Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoist alchemy and sorcery. We take what we want and leave the rest… Just like your salad bar.”
Americans, like most Humans, adapt things from other cultures into their own. JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE. We’re just the cultural juggernaut of the world. And let’s face it, we have stupid people who don’t understand how the world works who think it is ‘stealing’ to borrow ideas from other cultures. :smack:
Hell, Inanna-Ishtar was a Sumerian deity which conglomerated a ton of tribal female deities into one, then spread to neighboring cultures. She was being worshiped as Ashtar, a gender swapped version of Ishtar, by the Sabeans (in Yemen) circa 600 AD when Islam swept through and replaced it. A completely different culture and people, a thousand miles away, 3,000 years after Sargon (circa 2300 BC) raised her to top god status for his empire.
The Native Americans of the plains captured horses, descendants of those left behind or escaped from the Spanish, and entire new cultures developed and flourished around these imported, non-native animals.
The Italians took the new world Tomato and Chinese pasta and turned them into the center of their culinary universe.
So really, who cares if it is a true Mexican national holiday or not. It has become an American drinking holiday, just like St. Patrick’s Day. And it conveniently lies right in the big stretch of no holidays running from New Years or President’s Day, depending on your company, to Memorial Day.
Apparently saying Cinco De Mayo isn’t Mexican is part of some Anti-Trump thing.
Did someone forget to tell the ignorant orange shit stain in the Whitehouse that cinco de mayo was invented by beer companies and not really celebrated by Mexicans ?
Cinco de Mayo is something abhorrent: An ethnic holiday that hasn’t yet been completely deracinated. Therefore, it attracts questions of “authenticity” the way other ethnic holidays, such as Halloween and Christmas, do not, and that’s a test it’s bound to fail because living cultures constantly change and what is done is not what was done, in some mythical past in some non-existent “authentic” version of the holiday’s homeland.
Add to that the idea that The Oppressor Has No Culture, the idea that every cultural exchange is a transaction where one culture oppresses the other by appropriating something the other culture owns, and you get the conclusion that all change is degradation, is “inauthentic”, as opposed to being an expression of a mixed culture which is not only just as valid as any other culture on the planet, but is an example of something which has happened for the entirety of human existence. No culture is “pure” for the same reason no “race” or “ethnicity” is “pure”, only moreso, because you don’t need to fuck to produce a new take on a holiday.
I don’t observe Cinqo de Mayo for the same reason as I don’t observe St Patrick’s day. I don’t need an excuse to drink, and the whole “flaunting of the stereotypes” just annoys me.
(No, I share pictures of guinea pigs with giant mustaches not for the Pancho joke but because I have a giant mustache myself. )
I think this kind of stuff comes from the Social Justice Warriors - they usually are white people who think they are the saviors of People of Color. They think saying stuff like this shows off how they totally aren’t like those other white people and that they are using their white privilege to help the poor oppressed brown people of the world. It doesn’t surprise me at all that they would try to lecture someone who actually is Mexican on the Real Meaning of Cinco de Mayo. Insufferable lecturing and arrogance about how they know best is pretty much how they roll.
Personally, I couldn’t care less whether or not Cinco de Mayo is an “authentic” holiday. People are allowed to celebrate however they feel like celebrating.
The Mexicans I know love a good party. Clearly Cinco de Mayo isn’t “authentic”. It is probably more contrived than St. Paddy’s. Never heard anyone complain about Shamrock shakes at Dodo McBobo.
I’m not American. Not for me to speculate on racism or the political atmosphere.
I have seen no backlash around me at all. Its actually even bigger today than say 20 years back as far as celebrations go. In areas with a lot of food and drink (IE - our South Side) it was rocking pretty good last night way above the average Saturday night crowd and its more noticeable when it falls on a weeknight.
Saint Patrick’s Day isn’t “contrived” though. The difference is in the way it’s celebrated. In Ireland, it’s a holy day. Not “Get Drunk Off Your Ass Day”. (If anything, that’s every day in Ireland)
We need to appropriate some Canadian holiday and completely bastardize it. Isn’t that what we Americans are best at? Maybe even build a Canadian themed hotel in Las Vegas so we can get the full, authentic Canadian experience while still basking in 100 deg heat.
I grew up on the border. It was not celebrated as a party holiday, more like a bank holiday. I never knew anyone to celebrate it (on either side). My guess would be that bars and such in Juarez celebrate it now, but only because of the Americans.
The celebrated day is September 16, Independence day. The festivities are like the ones for July 4 here in the states.
Cinco de Mayo took a hit in Chicago this year, but it waasn’t due to any backlash. Would you believe this? There was a political dispute, and the parade was cancelled.
I suppose it might be like St. Patrick’s Day: Celebrated in a low-key way in the home country, treated as a celebration of the whole culture by those abroad who appreciate the culture, and treated by everyone else as an excuse to get drunk with a gimmick.
