This Is Why Texas Celebrates Cinco De Mayo
For many, Cinco de Mayo is a day for eating and drinking Mexican food, but Texans celebrate it for much deeper reasons.
AUSTIN, TX — Cinco de Mayo is known throughout the United States, especially in Texas, as another day to celebrate drinking margaritas, eating tacos, listening to mariachi music and watching people in colorful, red-ribboned dresses dance in the streets.
While the special day is a great excuse to commemorate Mexican culture, why do Texans go big on the minor Mexican holiday?
On the day of the battle, Zaragoza fell back to the favorable defensive forts outside of the city of Puebla, and with his ragtag army, beat back repeated French assaults upon the Mexican positions at Fort Loreto and Fort Guadalupe, according to History.
com.
Zaragoza, a Goliad native, helped lead the charge to Mexico's 1862 victory over France at the Battle of Puebla during the Franco-Mexican War on May 5, 1862 (Cinco de Mayo).
"The national arms have been covered with glory," Zaragoza wrote in a battle report.
"I can state with pride that not once, during the long struggle which it sustained, did the Mexican army turn its back on the enemy."
The Texan held firm ordering several counter attacks and held the gates to the capital.
The French were forced to retreat to Orizaba with the general's army in hot pursuit.
Unfortunately, Zaragoza's time in the limelight was short-lived. On Sept. 8, 1862—only four months after the Battle of Puebla—he died of typhoid fever at the age of 33.
Read the full article
here