Many Happenings to Highlight the Week…Happy Cinco de Mayo!
It’s important to learn about Cinco de Mayo and other Mexican traditions to add to this celebratory day!
Happy Cinco de Mayo Fashionistas!
This week is proving to be super busy—having already hosted the impressive NY Met Gala, and which will also see us through Cinco de Mayo, the Kentucky Derby AND Mother’s Day!!!! I hope you are all powering up to make it through the week until Sunday brunch with your favorite “moms”.
But let’s talk about Cinco de Mayo!
I’m sure many of you already have plans to meet up with friends and celebrate in the festivities. I’m always excited to celebrate this holiday as Cinco de Mayo is part of my heritage. This date celebrates the Mexican defeat of the French in the battle of Puebla in 1862. It didn’t stop the French from eventually winning the war to rule Mexico but it did galvanize the Mexican people to stay strong and continue to hold off the overthrow of the capital, Mexico City for some time.
This holiday is not celebrated as a national holiday in Mexico, but in the town of Puebla–it is highly memorialized. It is a day to re-enact the battle, enjoy parades, festivities, and all of the fun food, drink, decoration, and culture that Mexico has to offer.
No one is quite sure how this holiday came to be such a major day of celebration in the U.S. Some people feel that with the large Mexican American population in the southern parts of the U.S., the traditions just gradually entered into our culture.
Some feel that Cinco de Mayo became more and more popular around the ’60’s during the Chicano movement when Mexican Americans were trying to create more ethnic solidarity and gain equal rights.
And then of course a few decades later, beer manufacturers thought it would be a great marketing campaign…and somehow that is the part that has become most notable to our American pop culture–the belief that it is another great holiday to party and drink.
Believe me, I’m just as big a fan of celebrating this day with food and drink, but it’s always good to know the origins of this day and to learn about other Mexican traditions that can add more spirit to this celebratory day!
Some of my favorite parts of this holiday include…
Decorations!
Who doesn’t love brightly colored papel picados swagged overhead creating a festive mood or taking a swing at a decorated piñata filled with hidden goodies!
Food!
You don’t have to be a gourmet chef to pull this off. It doesn’t take a lot of effort to make some of the simplest dishes like tacos or burritos or quesadillas whether they’re ground beef, carne asada, chicken, shrimp, fish. And of course fresh guacamole and salsa will keep hungry guests happy—all easy things to make.
Music!
Some lively mariachi music goes well with a good Cinco de Mayo party. One of my favorite bands whom I enjoyed listening to last summer is the NY based, Flor de Toloache. They are an incredibly talented all female mariachi band that can rock your Cinco de Mayo world!
Cocktails!
Of course things like margaritas, sangria, Mexican beer and tequila are all traditional staples to Mexican heritage! But I do have 2 new favorites cocktails to add to this list that involve twists on a good old fashion Mexican beer…
One is the Mexican Bulldog which is really just a frozen margarita with an upside down “sidecar” of Corona slowly infusing its way into the margarita. It’s kind of like the exaggerated version of putting a lime in your Corona.
Next- Michelada cocktail and the upcoming Frida Kahlo performance
