Expédition du Mexique

The actual thing celebrated on "Sinko de Mayo" (see Gringo's comment under Tom's post) is the Mexican victory at the Battle of Puebla, which was part of a war that lasted longer than the American Civil War but that most Americans have never heard of. This war is referred to by the French as their Expédition du Mexique, in fact the second time they invaded Mexico but the bloodier.

Normally the United States kept the European powers from meddling in Latin America under the Monroe Doctrine, but the French expedition happened to coincide for the most part with the Civil War. It began in 1861 with Mexico telling the French, British, and Spanish governments that they weren't going to pay interest on their debt for a couple of years. The US Navy was busy blockading the ports of the American South, so it wasn't available to keep the French from sending a large-scale expedition to our most immediate southern neighbor.

The war drug on until 1867. The United States began to threaten to get involved as early as 1865, once the Confederacy was clearly broken and victory was only a matter of time. Probably it was American diplomacy that ended the war and secured a French withdrawal. The Mexicans fought a spirited fight, though.

The Battle of Puebla was rare a Mexican victory, which explains why the Mexicans celebrate it. But another Mexican victory actually produced a major holiday for the French military, specifically the famed Foreign Legion. Their most sacred relic and highest holiday came from a 'last stand' battle they fought against the Mexican army until only five Legionnaires were left, who promptly conducted a bayonet charge against the superior enemy forces. A few survived it; the Mexican commander, seeing how few in number the survivors were, declared that the Legionnaires were 'not men, but demons.' The survivors were permitted to keep their weapons and equipment as a sign of respect for their valor, and were given medical treatment -- a sight better than the Mexicans treated our boys at the Alamo.

2 comments:

Tom said...

A moi la Legion!

Gringo said...

One year I taught 9th grade math at a primarily Hispanic school. One class of 9th graders was taking 11th grade math. Definitely smarter than the average bear. It was a class that was split by lunch period.

On May 5 there were some exhibits in the courtyard about Cinco de Mayo. Students in the class asked if, instead returning for their last half hour of class after lunch, they could spend the time perusing the Cinco de Mayo exhibits. I gave them permission to do so. The class was doing well, so I had no problem with giving them a half hour off.

I informed them that in return, there would be a quiz the next day on the significance of Cinco de Mayo. No one passed the quiz. Had they simply stated that Cinco de Mayo referred to the Battle of Puebla in 1862 against the French, they would have passed the quiz.

Fortunately, they did much better on the final exam, which was 100% about math.

I occasionally spoke Spanish in class, in reply to a student speaking in Spanish. One told me, in reply to my Spanish, that I spoke Chinese. (Habla Chino.) His mother worked as an aide at the school. I asked her about the "speaking Chinese" remark. She told me it meant that I spoke too damn fast. While a fair number of students spoke Spanish, nearly all were born in the US (a lot of Tejano ancestry- in Texas before the Anglos). As a result English was their primary language. Spanish at non-native speaker speed.