Dame Otro Tequila, It's Cinco De Mayo!

It's Cinco de Mayo! So, while we scarf down our third taco poblano and tip back otra copa de tequila, let's all take a second to reflect on what really makes Cinco de Mayo worth celebrating.

For all of us who aren't quite up on our Mexican history: no, May 5th is NOT Mexican Independence Day.  That day, which is commonly known as "El Grito," takes place on September 16th.  In fact, Cinco de Mayo is not even widely celebrated in Mexico.  Cinco de Mayo is actually a day commemorating the unlikely Mexican victory over France en la Batalla de Puebla during the French intervention in the 1860s.

Quickie history lesson.  Basically, what went down is that Mexico owed a bunch of countries money.  President Benito Juárez of Mexico decided to stop making interest payments to France, who got peeved and attacked.  While they were initially successful in their invasion, the outnumbered Mexican Army held their ground and managed to defeat the way more sophisticated French Army in a battle at Puebla on May 5, 1962.  According to Wikipedia, the battle is significant for two reasons: 1) The Mexican Army was half the size of the 8,000-strong French Army that had not been defeated in 50 years, and they still managed to fight them off, and 2) it marks the last time any country in the Americas was invaded by a foreign power.

So what does all that mean?  Well, basically it means that Mexicans kick ass.  Cinco de Mayo is really a celebration of the Mexican spirit that says that even though we may be the little guys, we WILL stand together for what we believe in.  This spirit couldn't be more significant in today's political climate in which Arizona's immigration bill has caused such a stir of mixed feelings for Mexican-Americans, Latinos and Americans in general.

So, not that you really need an excuse to drink beer and tequila, but we thought about it a bit while on our cantina crawl, and we've picked our top 5 reasons we think you should celebrate Cinco de Mayo este año:

1. One of Mexico's hottest women, Paulina Rubio, is pregnant!  That means there will be another seriously beautiful Mexican on this earth in due time.  I'll drink to that!

2. The "illegal" trailer for 'Machete' was released today.  Robert Rodriguez is causing more mayhem in this flick that stars Danny Trejo and Michelle Rodriguez.  What better day to celebrate Mexico down and dirty style than Cinco de Mayo?

3. The Arizona Suns are protesting the Immigration bill by wearing jerseys that say "Los Suns."  Are you kidding me?  How cool is it that even sports stars are voicing their opinion against such a racist and unnecessary bill?!  One more tequila, por favor!

4. It's a day to celebrate your heritage with pride.  With all the negativity surrounding the current relationship with Mexico en nuestro país, we need an excuse to lighten up and come together in a positive way.  Let's put aside our hard feelings about immigration and injustice for a day and just kick back and appreciate our heritage, whether you're Mexican, Latino, American, Irish, Italian or whatever.

5. It's an excuse to party... wait, did we say that already?  Wear your Mexican pride con gusto and rock out to your favorite tunes!  We've compiled a list of five (how clever!) of our favorite songs from south of the border to listen to today.

So there you go.  Have a Corona, eat some tacos, you'll thank us later.  How will YOU be celebrating Cinco de Mayo?

Tags Cinco de Mayo, Immigration, Mexico, tequila