Americans have embraced Cinco de Mayo to a point where Cinco de Mayo has become a bigger celebration in America (at least, in major metropolitan cities from what I am reading) than in Mexico. I’m sure most Americans aren’t aware of what Cinco de Mayo is really about, the end of the Battle of Puebla, the victory of the Mexicans over the the French. In the U.S., it’s supposedly become a day that celebrates Mexican and Mexican American culture, or in other words, a day that gives us an excuse to eat too many tacos, burritos, guacamole, and get drunk off of margaritas and other tequila-spiked drinks.
At every company I’ve worked during during the last seven years, we’ve always had some Cinco de Mayo celebration. Tacos are catered, sometimes a pinata has been ordered, and almost always, multiple margarita machines are temporarily installed in a conference room so everyone can get tipsy together before they leave work for the day. It was fun and amusing for many years until I realized that we just use these “celebrations” as an excuse to drink and get drunk more. It’s gotten exhausting for me, and I really just don’t want to participate anymore. I sound like a Debbie downer, but what can I say? I love Mexican food, and I love, love tequila since it’s my liquor of choice, but the idea of using Cinco de Mayo, a holiday most of us have no clue about and don’t truly care about, as an excuse to imbibe and have tacos has just irritated me more and more over the years. I eat Mexican food and even make it when I want. I have my margaritas and tequila drinks when I want (and probably have more tequila than most people since for some reason, I’m realizing that people find tequila “deadly” aka hangover inducing. This is a little foreign to me). I don’t need a glorified drinking day to tell me when to have these things.
When you tell people you don’t really want to have tacos or margaritas on Cinco de Mayo, they make it seem as though you don’t care about Mexican culture (at least, my colleagues past and present have). Why is that – because they care more because they will have tacos and “margs” on the 5th of May?