Cinco de Mayo: More than just imbibing

• Where the action will be to celebrate Cinco de Mayo

By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Staff Writer

For Cinco de Mayo, Martha Sanchez-Minn, owner of a Latin market, makes tamales and teaches customers about the holiday. Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

It's a radio ad from a local nightspot announcing that because Cinco de Mayo falls most inconveniently on a Sunday this year, it has set its full evening of celebrating and imbibing (Drink specials! Pupu! Tacquitos!) for the more party-friendly Saturday evening before the real day. No stumbling into your Monday morning meetings with a strong desire to hurl if you choose our Cinco de Mayo house party, the ad promises.

Quienes mas cheesy?

Well, we're not naming any names. But it did make us wonder just how many revelers knew exactly what the Mexican holiday really celebrated other than another night to party like it's, um, St. Patrick's Day. On a recent Friday afternoon, I even asked a handful of people outside Compadres at Ward Centre (not the folks running the ad, by the way, but on their 18th year of Cinco de Mayo celebrating just the same).

"Mexican Independence Day," Stephanie, 25, an account executive, said confidently ... but incorrectly.

"The birthday of Corona!" said Ashton, 27, a graphic artist, referring to the former Mexican beer import, and not the ring surrounding the sun. I'm not entirely sure if he was joking, by the way.

Said Paul, 23, a civil engineer, "Some battle that a small army of Mexicans won against a vastly larger English army." Pause. "Kind of like 'Braveheart' without the kilts."

Close, but no Te-Amo.

Cinco de Mayo, or "The Fifth of May," recognizes the small but notable victory of the Mexicans over the French army at The Battle of Puebla in 1862.

Mexico declared independence from Spanish rule Sept. 16, 1810 (the officially observed Mexican Independence Day), finally winning its freedom in 1821 after 11 years of battle. But the years between that independence and La Batalla de Puebla saw the new republic stumble repeatedly in its attempts to build a sovereign nation.

Political takeovers, internal conflicts and, especially, Texas' secession from Mexico eventually led to the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), during which the United States won half of the country's territory. The Mexican Civil War (1858-1861) arrived in the middle of the resulting economic crisis, bankrupting the country's national treasury.

On July 17, 1861, President Benito Juarez issued a moratorium stopping repayment on all of Mexico's foreign debt for two years, and promising resumption of payment after the crisis was over. Owed much of that money, Napoleon III used the debt issue to launch an attack with the advertised intention of securing payment. In truth, the invasion's raison d'etre was to expand France's empire into Mexico (and farther into the Americas).

After successfully entering Mexico's port city of Veracruz with a goal of marching straight into Mexico City, French troops ran into resistance from an ill-equipped and outnumbered indigenous army led by Gen. Ignacio Zaragoza at Puebla. The May 5, 1862, battle raged for two hours before Zaragoza's passionate ragtag infantry of 3,000 — made up mostly by Mestizo and Zapotec Indians — forced the 6,000-strong French army to retreat.

A year later, Napoleon increased his troop export to 30,000, this time taking Mexico City and installing his relative Archduke Maximilian of Austria as monarch. But with the Mexican people, in part, still inspired by La Batalla de Puebla, France's rule was tenuous from the start.

Maximilian managed to hold power for four years before troops loyal to Juarez (and supported by a U.S. political and military establishment uncomfortable with a French foothold so close to its own borders) executed him and placed the former president back in office.

Though militarily insignificant, La Batalla de Puebla came to symbolize a new era of Mexican unity and patriotism, ending the decades of internal revolution that almost resulted in the country's downfall.

Cinco de Mayo was celebrated as more of a regional Mexican holiday — most vigorously, no surprise, in the Mexican state of Puebla — until the late 1960s, when Chicano (Americans of Mexican descent) activists lobbied for a holiday celebrating cultural heritage in American schools with a large number of Hispanic students.

Since then, Cinco de Mayo celebrations have grown faster in numbers and size in the United States than in Mexico; particularly in cities with a large Hispanic population base.

The holiday's growing popularity with non-Hispanics — and especially college students nearing final exams — hasn't been missed by restaurants, bars and U.S.- and Mexican-based food and beverage manufacturers seeking to ride Cinco de Mayo's apparent evolution (or devolution) into an evening mostly marked by ample eating, boozing and, when applicable, some nonedible manifestation of Mexican culture.

The California Avocado Commission expects Americans will inhale a record 54 million avocados (mostly as guacamole) on what will mark the crop's largest consumption day of the year. Scan supermarket aisles this weekend and you'll likely find enough specials on tortilla chips, salsa, tequila, limes and Mexican beer to make you temporarily forget the existence of a food pyramid. And just check out our TGIF list of events offering up ample opportunities to properly celebrate Cinco de Mayo this Sunday, er, Saturday.

"It's become like St. Patrick's Day!" says Martha Sanchez-Minn, owner of Latin grocery store La Mercado de la Raza. "It's an excuse to drink. I mean, people don't even know who St. Patrick is. And I'm sure if you ask them what Cinco de Mayo is, they'd say ... it's a day to drink margaritas."

Not that Sanchez-Minn — who was born and raised in Cuernavaca, Mexico, and is also a director at the Hispanic Center of Hawaii — is exactly complaining, mind you. With the week before Cinco de Mayo the second-best sales period of the year for her store (and, in particular, her homemade chicken, beef and pork tamales), her holiday goal is simply remedying rampant misinformation.

"Yes, it's commercialized," Sanchez-Minn says of Cinco de Mayo. "But that really doesn't upset me. I mean, that's part of being in this country. My thing is explaining to people that it isn't Mexican Independence Day and it's not really a big deal for us in Mexico. And then I tell them exactly what Cinco de Mayo is."

In addition to preparing more than 1,200 tamales in the week before the holiday — she'll make another 6,000 to 7,000 during the Christmas holidays — Sanchez-Minn said she would be answering cooking questions from her mostly non-Hispanic Cinco de Mayo clientele.

"I'd say 98 percent of my customers for Cinco de Mayo are non-Hispanic," Sanchez-Minn says. "They mostly want to know how to make enchiladas from scratch, and Mexican beans, Mexican rice and carnitas.

"And that makes me feel good because at least they won't have to go to Taco Bell, you know?"

And after opening from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday to keep anyone with Cinco de Mayo needs satiated, how will Sanchez-Minn spend her own fifth of May?

"I'm going to Compadres because they have the best margaritas and the best nachos!"

Olé!

Where the action will be to celebrate Cinco de Mayo

Saturday

Cinco de Mayo at Restaurant Row
8-11 p.m.
The Row Bar
528-2345
Music by Enbious

Salsa Boat Cruise
8:30 p.m.-1 a.m.
Ali'i Kai Catamaran (docked at Pier 5, Aloha Tower)
$30
384-2128, 383-2129, 389-7016
Live and DJ music on two decks by Orquestra Salsaloha and DJ Carlos.

Salsa de Mayo Viva Mexico!
9:30 p.m.
South Seas Village at The Hawaiian Hut
$10
342-0911, 941-5205
Live performances by Rolando Sanchez & Salsa Hawaii, Los Amigos Ballet Folklorico de Hawaii

Pre-Cinco de Mayo Party
10 p.m.-2 a.m.
Compadres Bar & Grill
591-8307
Live entertainment
Sunday

Cinco de Mayo at Cha Cha Cha Salsaria
Noon-7 p.m.
Cha Cha Cha Salsaria, Hawaii Kai Towne Center
395-7797
Live music from Rolando Sanchez and Salsa Hawaii at 3 p.m.

Waikiki Treasure Hunt & Cinco de Mayo Party
2 p.m.
$15
524-2712
A treasure hunt adventure and after-party for singles from Kindred Hearts Hawaii. RSVP to find out meeting location.

Cinco de Mayo Fiesta!
5-9 p.m.
McCully Shopping Center
Free
234-0772, 285-0772
Live performances from Son Caribe, Second Time Around and Grupo Quetzal. Food, beer and wine sampling. Arts and crafts.

Cinco de Mayo at Compadres
6 p.m.-2 a.m.
Compadres Bar & Grill "Party Zone" (at former A Pacific Cafe, next door, Ward Centre)
591-8307
DJ music by Rocky Dunmire

Cinco de Mayo Fiesta Latina
6 p.m.-midnight
Amerasia Bar & Grill, 2301 Kuhio Ave.
$5 (free cover before 9 p.m.)
271-4967
Latin music from DJ Alberto and Latin Lady DJ Margarita

Cinco de Mayo at Kemo'o Farms' The Pub
6-10 p.m.
The Pub at Kemo'o Farms, 1718 Wilikina Drive
621-1835
Live music by Salsaloha

Cinco de Mayo Celebration
7-8 p.m.
Fountain Courtyard, Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center
Free
234-0772, 285-0772
Live performance by Grupo Quetzal Mexican folkloric dancers and singers.

5 De Mayo Celebration at Pipeline Cafe
9 p.m.-2 a.m.
Pipeline Cafe
$10
589-1999
Live and DJ music from Orquestra Salsaloha and DJ David Louis