Popularity, Parties Proliferate North of the Border

By Mary Jordan
Washington Post Foreign Service

PUEBLA, Mexico -- This is how Nicolas Geronimo Castillo, a ceramics salesman in this historic city, will celebrate Cinco de Mayo: "I will get up, go to spinning
class, go to work, go home."

Yes, he knows the history: On May 5, 1862, the ragtag Mexican army defeated a larger French force in the Battle of Puebla. Mexico ultimately lost the war and
ended up with a French-installed emperor for three years. But they won the battle, so the 5th of May, the Cinco de Mayo, lives on in the history books.

For Castillo, and for most Mexicans, that's hardly a reason to break out grandpa's special tequila and fire up the band.

But north of the border, Cinco de Mayo has gone prime time. This weekend a 141-year-old battle fought in this central Mexican state is being toasted with
margaritas and mariachis from the barrios of Los Angeles to the halls of Congress.

Many bars in the United States are offering "cinco beers for cinco dollars." Flower delivery services are offering floral arrangements with a packet of hot sauce. The
U.S. avocado industry estimates that 37 million pounds of avocados, much of it mushed into guacamole, will be consumed just on that one day. Cinco de Mayo has
become a major-league reason to party for anyone who has ever dipped a chip or stuffed a lime wedge down the neck of a beer bottle.

"Nothing escapes the entrepreneurial spirit in the United States," said Charlie Ericksen, publisher of the Hispanic Link News Service in Washington.

Ericksen said Cinco de Mayo has grown beyond a purely Mexican party into a celebration for all Hispanics. He said the 300,000 to 400,000 Hispanics living in
greater Washington -- many of them from El Salvador -- view Cinco de Mayo as a day to celebrate their heritage.

"It's broadening," he said. "I mean, what the heck, it's a party."

Mexicans in Mexico view Cinco de Mayo celebrations in the United States with the kind of awed amusement that the Irish view U.S. St. Patrick's Day festivities.
Just as there is no green beer served in Dublin, people here in Puebla are not planning to put on party sombreros and pig out on chimichangas Monday.

"It's just a normal day for me," said Antonio Morales, a waiter at the Black Cow restaurant a block from the main square of this city, 60 miles east of Mexico City.

Morales's restaurant doesn't offer any Cinco de Mayo specials, unlike thousands of businesses in Los Angeles -- where his brothers live. In fact, Los Angeles just
threw a 36-block-long Cinco de Mayo party last weekend, billed as the biggest in the world.

"I guess it makes sense that Mexicans in America celebrate it more because they are far away and miss their country," Morales said.

Arturo Sarukhan, Mexico's consul general in New York, who is going to a huge bash today with Gov. George E. Pataki (R) and Mexican actress Salma Hayek,
said Cinco de Mayo "is big and getting bigger."

That is especially true around New York City, the number one destination for the hundreds of thousands who have emigrated from the state of Puebla in recent
years. Just about all 5 million people in this state, known for its Talavera ceramics and handmade furniture, have a relative living in New York. Here they may live
within walking distance of the fort where the battle took place, but it is there, thousands of miles away, that the party is really cooking.

Promoted by the Chicano pride movement of the 1960s, Cinco de Mayo parties, parades and cultural festivals began to blossom in the United States about 40
years ago. In the decades since, the Hispanic population has boomed; this year census figures showed that Hispanics are now the largest minority in the United
States, with 37 million people. And as the numbers have grown, so too have the parties. Even small towns in the United States pick a Cinco de Mayo queen or
organize a parade or festival.

Early May also fits well with the plans of those who market Mexican food and beer in the United States. Mexico's Independence Day, Sept. 16, comes right after
Labor Day in the United States, when children are just going back to school and many people are shifting gears from summer fun to fall tasks. But May 5 competes
with no other major U.S. holiday, and many people are just beginning their psychological drift toward summer. Marketers say they can't think of a better time for a
festival with cold beer and spicy Mexican food.

President Bush elevated the holiday by holding the first Cinco de Mayo party at the White House in 2001. This year, a White House spokesman said there will be
no bash because of security concerns over the Iraq war.

But on Thursday, House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) hosted a Cinco de Mayo reception in the Capitol attended by more than 30 members of Congress and
featuring margaritas and taped mariachi music. The Mexican Embassy in Washington will celebrate Monday by hosting a party for Hispanic community leaders,
Hispanic members of Congress and hundreds of others.

In Virginia, Gov. Mark R. Warner (D) plans to host senior members of state government -- about 140 agency heads -- at the Executive Mansion in Richmond's
Capitol Square, where he will serve Corona and Dos Equis beer, with Latin music playing on CDs in the background, according to William H. Leighty, the
governor's chief of staff.

Leighty, whose boss is fluent in Spanish and has made reaching out to Virginia's growing Hispanic community a hallmark of his administration, said many people in
the United States mistakenly believe Cinco de Mayo is Mexican Independence Day.

But more and more politicians such as Warner are giving speeches about it, mentioning the Battle of Puebla, attempting to straighten them out.

As Hispanic political clout grows, "the date is becoming more significant for politicians," said Lisa Navarrete, spokeswoman for the National Council of La Raza, a
national Latino organization based in Washington. She said the Italians have Columbus Day, the Irish have St. Patrick's Day and the Hispanics have Cinco de
Mayo to celebrate an underdog victory -- a theme that resonates in Mexico and throughout Latin America.

In the state of Puebla, where the one-day battle took place, there is more enthusiasm for the date than elsewhere in the country. Thousands of children here march
in a parade that goes down a street named after Gen. Ignacio Zaragoza, who led the Mexicans with machetes and a few cannons to victory over the French with
muskets and artillery. In 1998, then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush came here to attend a commemoration with then-President Ernesto Zedillo.

The epicenter of battle history is the Fort of Guadalupe. The brick and stone fort was built around a Catholic church overlooking the city. It is now a historic ruin,
after being bombarded with more than 1,200 cannonballs fired by the French.

Miguel Diaz Sanchez, the museum director, said many Americans come to visit the site, drawn in part by the fame of Cinco de Mayo celebrations. He said some
are surprised to discover that the United States had nothing to do with it.

But he said that lately, since the United States and France disagreed over the Iraq war, visiting Americans will likely be delighted to discover that the battle was all
about defeating the French.

Diaz said Bush's decision to cancel Cinco de Mayo celebrations at the White House was disappointing, but wouldn't stop the parties.

"It's like saying don't celebrate Christmas," he said. "It's so popular now that people will celebrate it anyway."

Researcher Mireya Olivas in Mexico and staff writer R.H. Melton in Richmond contributed to this report.

                                              © 2003