Cinco De Mayo Research Paper

Cinco de Mayo stands for the fifth of May. This is a more minor holiday in Mexico, in the United States Cinco de Mayo has turned into a celebration of Mexican culture and heritage, particularly in areas with large Mexican-American populations. Cinco de Mayo traditions include parades, mariachi music performances and street festivals in cities and towns across Mexico and the United States. Benito Juarez was born in 1806 and died in 1872. He became the president of a country in financial ruin. He was forced to defraud on his debts to European governments. France, Britain, and Spain sent naval forces to Veracruz to demand reimbursements. They negotiated with Mexico and withdrew. France was ruled by Napoleon from 1808 to 1873. France decided to use the …show more content…
This success came very easy to them. More than 6,000 French troops were under General Charles Laetrile de Lorencez. He deployed them to central Puebla de Los Angeles, a small town in east-central Mexico. General Lorencez was born in 1814 and died in 1892. General Ignacio Zaragoza was born in 1829 and died in 1962. He rounded up a rag-tag force of 2,000 loyal men. Many of them either indigenous Mexicans or of mixed ancestry got sent to Puebla. He led the outnumbered and poorly supplied Mexican men to the town to prepare for the French assault. On May 5, 1862 Lorencez placed his army, well prepared and supported by heavy artillery, before the city of Puebla and led an assault from the north. It lasted from day break to early evening. When the French finally retreated they had lost nearly 500 soldiers. Fewer than 100 Mexicans had been killed in the clash. Although not a major strategic win in the overall war against the French, Zaragoza’s success at Puebla represented a great symbolic victory for the Mexican government and strengthened the resistance movement. Six years later military support and political pressure from the United States