It’s Cinco de Mayo–Vive La France!
Posted on May 5th, 2008
by Daniel Larison |
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Otherwise quite sensible, Mark Krikorian praises Cinco de Mayo because ” it’s always a cause for celebration when the French get beaten.”* This creates some internal contradictions in the reflexive Francophobia that has been an annoying tic on the right for the last six years: if the French are beaten in a battle, that means that they actually fought in a battle, which suggests that they do not automatically surrender to their enemies. That’s a difficult paradox to resolve.
Of course, there are plenty of occasions when the French or their forerunners among the Franks were victorious that should make us very happy, starting with Poitiers and ending at least with Yorktown. In light of what came later, I doubt too many Americans would be interested in popping corks to mark the anniversary of the fall of Dienbienphu. For my part, I have always viewed Cinco de Mayo as a rather sad holiday, since it is notable mainly because it is one of the only occasions in history when the Mexicans have ever prevailed over anyone. Now it has been commodified and turned into an excuse for middle-class whites to drink Cuervo to excess, but without the attendant integration and respect that attaches to the Irish for St. Patrick’s Day.
* Yes, I realise this is at least partly tongue-in-cheek, but I’m tired of the attitude behind such jokes.
Filed under: miscellaneous, politics
8 Responses to “It’s Cinco de Mayo–Vive La France!”
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I just want to know if they celebrate the Fourth of July in Mexico.
That’s the funny thing about Cinco de Mayo. Mexican independence day is a much more important celebration in Mexico, while most people up here have no idea when it is (why would we?). Celebrating Cinco de Mayo here would be like Mexicans celebrating the anniversary of Lexington and Concord. It makes no sense at all. Not that celebrating Mexican independence day would necessarily make any more sense, but at least that would have some parallel with what the Greeks do on March 25.
The even more extreme reactionary would question whether we should celebrate Yorktown.
Well, quite. As a matter of constitutional law, the Loyalists were pretty much in the right, and there is something a bit dodgy about allying with the old enemy to strike at the Mother Country. However, until I encounter a Francophobe who is also a supporter of the Loyalists, I think the point stands.
As a matter of constitutional law, the Loyalists were pretty much in the right,
Mr. Larison, what books would you recommend that go into this at length?
Offhand, I recommend The Good Americans for a history of the Loyalists, which touches on some of this. There are others that I have somewhere in my collection, but that is as good a place as any to start.
Ok, thank you! I’ll have to find myself a copy.
@daninardmore:
In San Miguel de Allende, GTO, which has quite a large expat community, they do, or at least they did in the 70s when I lived there. If my memory serves correctly the festivities actually got some small amount of money from the city govt. I remember well the 1973 celebration when one of the pyrotechnics went awry and wound up burning down the biggest tree in the plaza, said tree allegedly dating back to the colonial period. A finer metaphor for something you could not ask.