happy cinco de mayo.

that's today. cinco de mayo. there are a couple of misconceptions about cinco de mayo, at least with regard to what exactly it is. first, it's not simply the day the bars decided to make corona longnecks a nickel all day, although that makes it a better day than it would be otherwise. it's also not mexican independence day. that particular day is september 16, 1810.

cinco de mayo commemorates an event a little over fifty years later. what had happened was mexico had gotten itself into dutch, not with the dutch, but with the english, the spanish and the french. so those three nations decided to send armies to mexico, ostensibly as a sort of collection agency for the money they were owed by mexico. benito juarez, mexico's president, quickly made an agreement with the governments of england and spain. france's leader, napoleon, however, had designs on mexico and wasn't as easily convinced to bring his army back home, so he sent 6,500 troops who were met by a smaller, less well-equipped mexican force at puebla led by general ignacio zaragoza and aided by among other things, hostile terrain, a cattle stampede started by the citizens of puebla, and just some good old mexican stubbornness, who routed them. that happened on may 5, 1862.

and that's how the mexican st. patrick's day came to be.

feeling: like i want a corona and some doritos
thinking of: the beach
music: "loco gringos like a party" reverend horton heat