So today is Cinco de Mayo. I went to look up what Cinco de Mayo’s deal was on Wikipedia and found that I had a pretty incorrect understanding of what it is.
Apparently it’s not Mexican Independence Day (that’s September 16th). Instead, it commemorates the victory of the Mexican Army over the French in the state of Puebla. Furthermore it’s only really a big deal here — Wikipedia says in Mexico it’s only really celebrated widely in Puebla.
What’s really interesting is how it relates to the United States (and perhaps why it’s more widely celebrated here):
Historian Justo Sierra, has written in his Political Evolution of the Mexican People, that had Mexico not defeated the French in Puebla on May 5, 1862, France would have gone to the aid of the South in the U.S. Civil War and the United States’ destiny could have been very different
Freaky-deaky.