…is ever more identity politics. From the AP, “On May 5, Mexican dominance irks other Latinos”:
With mariachis, tequila and parades, Cinco De Mayo will be celebrated this week in parties across the nation, kicking off a commemoration of Mexican heritage in the United States as a pseudo-holiday that has been adopted by the general population.
But for Dagoberto Reyes, a Salvadorian immigrant living in Los Angeles, May 5 is more a reminder of the dominance Mexican culture has in a country that is home to immigrants from many Latin American countries. His prime example: Los Angeles-area public schools.
“Our kids go to this school system, and the school system is more preoccupied with Mexico’s history, and not the rest of Latin America’s, much less El Salvador’s,” said Reyes, director of Casa de la Cultura, a Salvadorian community center. “They came back celebrating Cinco De Mayo. That holiday means nothing to us.”
It’s a popular misconception that Cinco de Mayo is Mexico’s Independence Day. The date actually celebrates the 1862 Battle of Puebla, in which Mexican forces stopped an invading French army. It’s a date barely celebrated in Mexico and not in any other Latin American country.
Mexican-born immigrants make up the largest group of foreign-born Latin Americans at almost 11 million, a number that nears the total of immigrants from all other Latin Americans countries, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. As a result, Mexican culture has been the dominant Latino force in the United States, often leaving other Latinos to adapt or resent.
It’s often as simple as commanding the dominant slang-for example, a jacket for Central Americans is “chaqueta,” but for Mexicans it is “chamarra” — but it can range to more overt hostility or competition in the work force, and it can spark worries of losing cultural identity.
— Which is why I say let’s all celebrate May 5th because it’s, well, May 5th!
Either that, or have the Salvadorans give me another date on which it’s appropriate to don a wide-brimmed, tasseled hat and do tequila shots off the dash while honking my horn at all ladies, and I’m happy to celebrate that, too.
I mean, I love learning about other cultures!
Now if we can only get the government to start recognizing these kinds of celebrations as state holidays, we can finally please all the various identity groups AND get that four-day work week that those soft-socialist countries are always bragging about.
Two birds, one stone. Hit me again, bartender! Undule!
(h/t Terry H)
The best thing about mucho Cinqo de Cuatro is how little I hear of May Day anymore.
Screw that, there are 192 countries in this world and I think its only fair to celebrate their diversity by having a day off for each one. I think that brings us down closer to less than one day work week. The “MAN” can put that in his pipe and smoke it…
um
The only part of multicultural identity politics that has ever held any sway for me are the ones that include gratuitous drinking. This way I can “fit in” with dem foreigners by getting hammered.
Happy Cinqo-de-drinko!
We could always celebrate May 5th because it’s my birthday. Usually I do a shot of some kind of nice tequila, so I think most Latinos could compromise.
I would include everybody. I’m inclusive. And diverse.
By the way Jeff, if you haven’t read todays WSJ Ed page, you should read this one immediately. It’s got your thesis written all over it.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124148307816785543.html
Voting Rights Milestone
A Supreme debate about racial progress
Cinco De Mayo, like most major holidays, is only such because advertising companies and businesses made it so. It’s a beer-driven holiday this time (which makes me wonder why they haven’t tried harder with Oktoberfest).
Fuck you Mr. Reyes and the over burdened work animal you rode in on. The day El Salvadore gives us a drink as wonderfully potent and structural as Tequila, I’ll celebrate that Salvadoran holiday. But not a day sooner.
And to Zelda, all I can say is, feliz cumpleanos. And many more.
The Texas Roots of Cinco de Mayo
“Our kids go to this school system, and the school system is more preoccupied with Mexico’s history, and not the rest of Latin America’s,…”
No mention of the United States there, I notice.
What’s the big deal with the battle at Puebla? EVERYONE beats the French.
The notion of an uninvolved State scares the pee out of me. Life on lonely, watery little blue orbs needs something to look up to.
I’m still working on my play about Cinco de Mayo. It’s a tragicomedy about how chips would not talk to salsa, and salsa was mad at chips. But the tragically funny thing is, chips is no good without salsa, and salsa is useless without chips. Then Dos XX comes in and gets chips and salsa to sit together and hammer out their differences. Then a homeless guy eats them all like they’ve got the cure to syphilis in them. The end.
It’s rough. It should be done by next May.
forget the shots. unless they’re belly shots off someone super hot. otherwise just hand me the damn bottle please. maybe downing the whole thing will help me to forget what’s been done to our country. and if i can’t forget who knows, at least i might get drunk enough to rip off my shirt (tho not my bra, not at my age) and dance on a table.
also, happy birthday zelda, and enjoy your tequila and whatever else you do to celebrate. yesterday was my hubby’s bday. and much fine tequila was imbibed last night. it is indeed a very pleasant way to celebrate such an event. =]
May 5 is my wedding anniversary. And I hate Mexico, too.
You’ll have to open that play off, off, off, off, off, off, off, Broadway, al.
I’m thinking Paramus.
Wait, I don’t hate my wedding anniversary. Just Mexico.
You’ll have to open that play off, off, off, off, off, off, off, Broadway, al.
Does the fact that I’ve signed Ed Begley Jr. for the role of chips, and Iron Eyes Cody will be playing salsa change your mind and all?
And before you jump on me about how IEC has been dead for 10 years – that’s what makes him so believable as salsa.
Happy Cinco de Quatro everyone!
cuatro? whatever. I’m tired.
Cinco de Cuervo?
You know, though. This guy has a point. I’m German. I demand the month of October off.
Because of the WARSTEINER!
and it can spark worries of losing cultural identity
Surely not to be compared with losing one’s mind.
Dead dried up old guys are more believable as chips, al. Just write in Red corn chips and cast Charo as the salsa. That leaves Ed Begley Jr. as the homeless guy. Oh, oh! John Travolta as the tough INS enforcer with a heart of gold and a secret addiction to chipotle.
I smell Obie!
LOOK, I can’t do this by myself folks. I’m gonna go walk my dog, and when I get back I demand pie.
Or, perhaps, i just smell Ed Begley Jr. YMMV
Barry’s helping you out with that, Carin.
“#
Comment by Carin on 5/5 @ 2:02 pm #
You know, though. This guy has a point. I’m German. I demand the month of October off.
Because of the WARSTEINER!”
There’s a new German-Chinese restaurant in suburban Philadelphia.
Eat there and an hour later you want to conquer Poland.
I knew he said it. Just not how it was spelled. Now I’m going to take a walk JUST LIKE OBAMA AND HIS WIFE did. Except, I’m gonna do a couple of miles. And take my dog. But, other than that… I’m trying to emulate him.
Perhaps I’ll go to a burger joint later. Isn’t he just SWELL? And, don’t get me started on Michelle’s arms.
You can celebrate cuatro de Cinco because it’s Madelynn’s birthday, too!
Happy birthday to Zelda, too!
You know, Pablo, for a clean articulate guy, Obama sure is a dipshit.
“Happy Cinco de Quatro everyone!”
Well, let’s see. Il Douche has moved on nationalizing banks, autos, healthcare, and energy. There’s your quatro.
Why yes, OI. Yes he is.
Somehow, they never mention the Battle of Camerone (April 30, 1863), do they?
Well, Le Legion Etrangere does, but not much of anybody else. 62 Legionaires, 3 Officers vs. 1200+ Mexican soldiers.
“At noon, Captain Danjou was shot in the chest and died; his soldiers continued fighting despite overwhelming odds under the command of an inspired Lt. Vilain, who held for four hours before falling during an assault. With ammunition exhausted, the last of Danjou’s soldiers, numbering only five under the command of Lt. Maudet, desperately mounted a bayonet charge. Two men died outright, while the rest continued the assault. The tiny group was surrounded and beaten to the earth.”
Happy Birthday, Zelda !!!!!
“The best thing about mucho Cinqo de Cuatro is how little I hear of May Day anymore.” — BuddyPC
Not quite yet, I’m afraid. NPR was all over it, as usual.
I’m celebrating today because it’s Tuesday. That means trash pickup day.
I celebrate because I no longer live in a neighborhood where “take out the trash” means buying the neighbor’s stepdaughter dinner and a movie.
Colonel Robin “Tin Eye†Stephens understood that the key to getting a hostile prisoner to talk was not pain, per se, but fear.
As Jayne Cobb once rightly observed, “Pain is scary.” It isn’t right for every circumstance, but you also can’t say it “never works.”
Colonel Stephens threatened with summary execution spies who understood that others in their selfsame positions had already been executed.
Or, perhaps, i just smell Ed Begley Jr. YMMV
That may have been me. I had bean sprouts at lunch.
Happy Sink-O-De-Mayo !
http://tinyurl.com/cs25n9
Great find, Pablo. Thanks. You know one of the things that I haven’t seen yet in all this discussion about “torture” is nobody seems to talk about the differences in motivation for the every day German (or godless communist) officer/soldier and the islamist. O!bambi claims, it seems wrongly, that the British didn’t torture. And that certain non-coercive (bullshit) methods such as drugs and drink seem to work. I would think that using drugs on a captured person is just as invasive as a beating, too, but that’s another conversation. Well, maybe, just maybe, the average everyday German offcer/soldier didn’t have his heart into it (the fuhrer’s end goal) as the modern Jihadi does (to their mind, Allah’s end goal). I think first and foremost, this is because the average lefty is Godless, so they have no empathy or understanding of what goes through the jihadi’s mind. Belief and faith to the left is nothing more than a whim. It’s gas. It has no importance. To them, jihadis and german foot soldiers are all the same. It seems to be a fundamental disconnect. Never mind that waterboarding is not torture. Or else we torture our own troops. Where’s the outrage?
This is just like the Scots rioting because the Irish get THEIR drinking holiday — St. Paddy’s — and the Scots get bupkis. We also don’t have a French or Italian ethnic day, nor a Russian, Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian, Greek, Romanian, Welsh, Hungarian, etc.
The reason gringos have adopted Cinco de Mayo is because it’s easy to say. Dieciséis de Septiembre is too hard. In this country, we can treat it like a Latino version of St. Patrick’s day and call it good. All those Central American countries all blend together anyway.
Here are some Cinco de Mayo Cake Wrecksâ„¢. Notice the link with Noah’s in #41.
Yesterday, I went to a mercado latino and bought un Jarritos de limón y un pastel relleno de mora. Ordered it in Spanish. The proprietor was duly impressed. Or not. My money is a good as anyone’s.
Technically, Columbus Day is/was “Italian Day”, at least when I was living in Boston.
I’m Scotch-Irish, so any day is as good a day to drink as any other.
Well, Le Legion Etrangere does, but not much of anybody else.
If fiction counts, the troops in Jerry Pournelle’s Falkenberg stories celebrated Camerone Day.
True story: I used to go to Luxembourg on business fairly frequently. In my travels, I learned that the folks from southern Luxembourg don’t like or trust those from northern Luxembourg.
And I, who break open my egg on the small point, cannot abide those who break it open on the wide end.
And I’ll not change my mind, you can bet the farm on that.
Columbus Day?
This may be just because I live in the former “Little Italy” of KC, but I see a lot of Italian tri-colors being flown on Columbus Day.
dicentra: let me out-Swift you just a bit.
I’ll be big-endian until the day I die. Too bad that Intel’s crap architecture wound up winning.
Being mostly of Celtic background myself, I don’t need a special day to drink.
To quote the estimable PJ O’Rourke: Peat, by the way, is found only in Celtic countries because God realized the Celts were the only people on earth who drank so much that they would try to burn mud.
Are we celebrating Kenyan Independence Day or does Opie prefer Ramadan as his Holidy du Cuatro?
Carin, how does Opie tell the difference between his dog BO and his ugly wife Michelle??
The dogs shoes only cost $300.00.
You must not live in a city White People Like. In the one I’ve been stuck in lately, May Day is the second most celebrated day of the year, next to “Holiday.”
I got about five “I’m about to head over to The Parade, so […]” messages that morning. It’s very important socially to let it be known that you’re participating, and that you’re so casually down with it, it’s just The.
Fortunately, I didn’t answer the phone live and say “What parade?” like some filthy worker, or I could never show my face in Society again.
A circumstance well worth celebrating I’d think!
There are exercises you can do for that, I hear.
Mas cervesas! Mas cervesas por mi amigos yanquis!
Just a cupla observations, y’all know I don’t belong posting here…
” As a result, Mexican culture has been the dominant Latino force in the United States, often leaving other Latinos to adapt or resent.”
Actually? What I’m seeing is the enclaves of the early 1900’s. While we’re mostly Brazi here, There are Salvadorans on Gordon,Cubans all OVER Cedar, Peruvians on Charles….you see where I’m going with this? Makes for one HELL of a World Cup party though!!! Just wear the colors, don’t call it soccer and the free beer and lime flows!!
Then there’s this…
“Either that, or have the Salvadorans give me another date on which it’s appropriate to don a wide-brimmed, tasseled hat and do tequila shots off the dash while honking my horn at all ladies, and I’m happy to celebrate that, too.”
We call that day of festivity “downtown”…
I paraphrase the Spike of Bensonhurst, “I come from a higher culture.”
Not that I consider Mexican culture that high (although their contribution of the fish taco to world cuisine is truly worthy of respect).
Of course in New York, it is all about Puerto Ricans. No other Latino culture counts.
Nevertheless, I do prefer Mexican liquor and food.
And how can we all forget Cubans of South Florida and New Jersey. They consider themselves the highest of Hispanic cultures.
One can only wonder what obscure, pointless holiday the US will adapt because advertising agencies and businesses want to sell more of a niche product? And why people blindly follow along, tongues hanging out.
¡Más whisky! ¡Y caballos frescos para mis hombres!
Did El Salvador ever defeat France?
Yeah, didn’t think so.
And what percentage of hispanics in the US are Salvadoran in origin rather than Mexican?
Pretty damned low. 655k compared to 20 million.
Now, it may be that illegals have a higher Salvadoran representation, but I lack sympathy to their lack of inclusion in school curricula.
Did El Salvador ever defeat France?
That’s a pretty low bar for success.