Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. Cinco de Mayo is celebrated more here in the States than it is in Mexico. But hey, it gives us Mexicans (and other Latinos) a reason to drink up.
But on a more serious note. I definitely want us Latinos to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. And here's the reason why.
It was on May 5th, that a rag-tag army of Mexican peasants defeated a well trained French force at the Battle of Puebla, 1862.
The French invaded Mexico and Mexico beat them back. Another reason to celebrate this victory over France is because if it weren't for Napoleon, the United States would not have acquired the southwest of the United States.
Way back then, when the thirteen colonies were itching to expand, they first looked at the Louisiana Territory, owned by France. The thirteen colonies coveted France's territory in the New World and desired to acquire it. France gave it up without so much as a single battle. Napoleon straight away signed on the dotted line and handed over the Louisiana Territory to the United States.
If Napoleon had at least fought for France's territories, the United States would not have had the ammunition to later wage war with Mexico and thereby acquire the Southwest (present day California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas).
It was Napoleon who sold out to the Anglo-Saxons. Mexico fought, France straight away signed on the dotted line.
Napoleon fucked up! If he had so much as put up a fight for his territories, the United States would not have later acquired the Southwest, and this would have been a French and Spanish Empire, and the United States would have remained as a sort of Netherlands transplanted into the New World, confined to the Mid-Atlantic and New England states.
The New World would have been French-Spanish, it was Napoleon who made it Anglo-Saxon!
CELEBRATE CINCO DE MAY! Mexico beat the French back, after the French sold out to the United States!
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