Cinco De Mayo, Corona Beer and the El Paseo Celebration

LIVE! did some digging and found out some interesting things about what has especially become a wildly popular holiday in Texas, Cinco De Mayo.

There is a vast misconception that Cinco De Mayo is Mexican Independence Day.  "Cinco de Mayo is a phony tradition, a joke on los gringos, then exploited as a marketing gimmick by Mexican restaurant chains," explained Dr. Jack Wheeler of To the Point News in a widely-read editorial in May 2013.

In actuality, Mexican Independence Day is on September 16, or Diez y Seis de Septiembre. Cinco De Mayo, or the fifth of May, is actually in observance of the Battle of Puebla. The town of Puebla, where the battle took place, is one of the few cities in Mexico that truly observes the day as any sort of holiday, with battle re-creations and a festival-like gathering.

In 1861 Mexican president Benito Juarez inherited a country that was in desperate financial woe, and was forced to default on some loans from European governments. France, Spain and Britain all sent naval forces to collect the Mexican debt in response.  As result, Mexico was able to work out a deal with Britain and Spain, but Napoleon the Third of France would not settle for any deals and sent 6,000 troops into the town of Puebla De Los Angeles. His aim was to collect the land for debt owed.

President Juarez, who was driven out of office by French forces, retreated to Juarez where he gathered a small army of 2,000 rowdy men native to the area and sent them to the small east-central Mexico town.

On May 5, 1862, led by a Texas-born man, General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguin, the small army of 2,000 Mexican troops lay in wait of the 6,000 French (Seguin was born in 1829 in Goliad, Texas. And Texas was a state of Mexico). When the armies met, the battle raged from sunup to sundown. In the end, Mexico sent the French troops packing with as many as 500 causalities. The Mexican Forces were virtually unscathed, losing less than 100 men. It was a small yet huge victory for Mexico at the time, causing others to rise against the French invasion. Mexico did not actually gain their Independence until six years later in 1888 with the help of the United States; Cinco De Mayo was the kick start.

To an American, hearing the phrase Cinco De Mayo may conjure visions of mariachi bands, women in long-skirted, brightly-colored dresses, tamales, tequila and cold Corona beer. In Mexico, Cinco De Mayo is just like any other day for the most part, with the exception of the town of Puebla. An interesting side note about Puebla, it has a “sister” city named Pueblo, which is contrary to what was taught in Spanish class, denoting that nouns ending in "O" are masculine, which in theory would make it a “brother” city.

Names beside the point, knowing what you know now about the true meaning of Cinco De Mayo, do you find it odd it’s a widely celebrated holiday in America and not Mexico?  The battle is indeed a noble underdog tale, but yet a very fragment of the long battle for Mexico’s independence. How then did it become popular in the U.S.?

San Angeloans alive today may remember celebrating Cinco de Mayo since their birth. But here is one story about the growth of the holiday in more recent times.

A theory on this stems from a story about the company who made Heineken in the early '80s that spread rumors about Corona factory employees urinating in the glass beer containers before shipment. This was an attempt by Heineken to foil the company’s financial momentum it experienced upon introduction to the U.S. The rumor hurt Corona’s sales, and the company had to come up with a marketing strategy to salvage themselves in the American market.

In the U.S., holidays are often associated with mass consumption of alcohol, and so the advertising executives at Corona got together and decided to pick a holiday to save their brand as a Mexican made beer in America. First they picked Mexican Independence Day. The only problem with that was that it is hard for the average English speaking American to say Diez y Seis de Septiembre, meaning September 16th, in Spanish. Cinco De Mayo rolled off the English speakers' tongues and was easy to remember. So in an effort to save their U.S. investment, Corona became the official beer for the holiday, “The Drinko For Your Cinco”.  Much like the underdog soldiers at the Battle of Puebla, Corona came out on top and is now the fourth-largest selling international beer.

Regardless of how it gained its popularity in the early '80s the history speaks for itself, and San Angelo along with the rest of the U.S. has embraced Cinco De Mayo as homage to Mexican heritage.

This weekend you will find the sixth annual Cinco De Mayo Thunder In The Conchos Car, Truck & Bike Show celebration in full swing at El Paseo De Santa Angela, beginning tonight at 6 p.m. The Southside Lions Club hosts the event, and LIVE! had the opportunity to speak via telephone Thursday morning with Monette Molinar, event chairperson and longtime Lions Club member.

“This is our sixth year to host the event,” said Molinar.  “Last year we had about 81 entries (in the auto show), so this year we are shooting for 100, but you never know who will show up with what type of vehicle, we have gotten a lot of phone calls,” she said. “There is also an entry category for kids to enter their tricycles and bikes in the car show. There will be a jalapeno eating contest, a live DJ, food from 25 different vendors, a carnival and dancing.”

The San Angelo Ballet Azteca Dancers will perform this evening at 7 p.m., and in case you miss it, again Saturday at 7 p.m. Mariachi Alma Mexicana will also be performing, and the jalapeno eating contest Molinar referred to will be held sometime Saturday afternoon. Winners of the car show will be announced Saturday afternoon as well, with the event wrapping up late Sunday night at the close of the carnival.