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Cinco de Mayo...

There are few things more distinctly American than getting absolutely wasted on otherwise meaningful holidays.  Most of us spend Memorial Day, a celebration of our veterans of World War II (and wars since) near a grill and/or a beach waist deep in alcoholic beverages. The same could be said for the day which we celebrate our independence from the British. Hell, even holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving, we find ourselves in the nearest bar as soon as we can sneak away from our familial responsibilities. [kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/XNtTEibFvlQ" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /] So it should come as a surprise to no one, though many of us aren't Irish or Mexican, that we use holidays like St. Patrick's Day or today, Cinco de Mayo, as an excuse to get shit-faced drunk. We don't even care what the holidays are actually about, we just know the celebration involves getting wasted. So I decided, while drinking (I'm three drinks in at this point), I wold look into the origins of this festive holday. In 1861, Benito Juarez (who has the dubious distinction of lending his name to what is now one of the cocaine cartel/murder capitals of the world) decided to stop making interest payments to countries Mexico owed money to. The French, not pleased with this decision, planned to take over and occupy Mexico. At first, this was successful and then on May 5th, 1862, at the city of Puebla, the Mexican forces were able to defeat an attack by a better equipped French army that was twice its size. This victory however, was short lived as a year later the French occupied Mexico and placed Emperor Maximilian I on the throne. This lasted until the United States told the French to hit the bricks and they withdrew in 1866. The reason this whole thing is important, though it should be mentioned Cinco de Mayo has limited significance in Mexico nationwide (meanwhile, we started celebrating the resistance to French rule in California in 1863), is because since the Battle of Puebla there hasn't been a country in the Americas that's been invaded by an army of another continent. So that's your history lesson of the day. Happy drinking kids and remember to be safe (as safe as one can be when they've spent the entire day drinking anyway) out there.