Linda Bilak’ Blog

I almost wrote “Rooting for the underdog” but then that image would have confused you even more.  This post is in honor of Cinco de Mayo.  The reason why I did not title it that was because I saw there were already two on the DEN site and neither had to do with what the actual date signifies. Let me explain.

I am a Spanish teacher who is also fascinated by history,  science, art and music.  When I embraced Spanish, I took it upon myself to be able to teach more than just the language. (My students have painted murals on my classroom wall, learned how to create mayan hieroglyphs, and listened to rainforest howler monkey calls.) My students have usually heard of Cinco de Mayo-but it is often misinterpreted as “Independence Day”. No, that would be September 15th. 

Here we go, Mexico had defaulted on a debt to Britain, Spain and France. France came to collect from the impoverished nation and took advantage of the situation. The US was no help, since in 1862, we were involved in our own Civil War.(The French were well aware the US was not going to intervene).  French troops had been sent to Veracruz to march inland toward Mexico City. The Battle of Puebla on May 5th, 1862 changed the plan temporarily. Under General Ignacio Zaragosa a small, ill-equiped, ragtag army defeated the powerful French troops. The French had not known military defeat since 1810 and the infamous Battle of Waterloo.  This swelled the patriotism and pride of the Mexicans to defend themselves against such a mighty power.  The humiliated French did counter by sending many more troops. The following year they succeeded in taking over Mexico City and remained until 1867.

So they won the battle, not the war. They took on a bully- and won against the odds. It was a fleeting victory, but it served to inspire them to fight foreign domination.   
   Especially those from imperialist states bent on world conquest . Now you understand the image I chose. Ok, class dismissed.