Cinco de 'Merica

Or killing the bill collector

Most people don’t know about the origins of Cinco de Mayo, the American holiday celebrating the Mexican heritage of a great many Southern and Southwestern citizens. As a person intrigued by and enamored of history in general, I recognize that those of us in the Southwestern states understand that our lands have a strong Mexican influence; many Mexican pueblos existed here prior to the landing of the Mayflower, or concurrent to it, including Pueblo, Colorado. That does not give anyone license to illegally jump the border any more than America’s defeat of Mexico in 1846 gives one the right to jump the border and claim some part of Mexico as reparations.

What is interesting is that Mexico doesn’t celebrate Cinco de Mayo, because it’s not their independence day, as so many falsely believe. September 16th is their independence day from New Spain. Except for the small village of Puebla, where the vastly outnumbered Mexican Army defeated the French Army in 1862, Mexico, at least until very recently, didn’t celebrate it at all. It was generally irrelevant to the overall history of the Franco-Mexican War.

The event of the Battle of Puebla would be akin to the Battle of Glorieta Pass, a Civil War battle that took place in New Mexcio near Santa Fe the same year, 1862. The local celebration of that serves as a parallel to Cinco de Mayo in Mexico. That doesn’t detract from the impressive feat of the Mexican Army, but it was not, except as a morale booster, important to the five-year Franco-Mexican War.

Even the war is misunderstood. The reason for the war with France is what draws America into the discussion. The Mexican war with France began, because Mexico had endured a long procession of coups and overthrows of different governments and the nation was greatly impoverished by it.

President Benito Juarez, upon entering the office, realized that the treasury had been drained and there was no way to repay all that Mexico had borrowed from France, Great Britain and Spain. By 1861, these nations, tired of being told to wait for repayment, began to make threats. Juarez, in response to the pressure of the European nations declared a moratorium on debt payments. In October of 1861 France, Great Britain and Spain sent troops to Mexico in a combined effort to force payment. But Great Britain and Spain, after arguing amongst themselves about the method of forcing payment, left. But France, with a large contingent of conservative Mexicans, who detested the reforms put into place by Juarez, encouraged the French to depose him. France launched an occupation force in October of 1861.

The similarities to the United States, if you understand the history of the U.S. beginning with the assassination of JFK; the forced resignation of Richard Nixon; the attempted assassination of Gerald Ford; the single term of Jimmy Carter; the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan; the impeachment of Bill Clinton; the “hanging chad” controversy of the 2000 election; the media concealment of the ineligibility of the foreign-born Barack Obama and his partisan spying on the Trump campaign (the reason Nixon was forced to resign), leading to the Russia Hoax and a denial of presidential power to Trump; then, the actual coup that installed another illegitimate Democrat, is striking.

The United States, like Mexico of 1861, finds itself deep in debt and unable to repay the loans. The debt ceiling debate was an opportunity to show our good sense, to stop the borrowing, at least to slow the hideous rate to which it had accelerated, make some economically wise adjustments and assure our debtors that we would honor their bonds. But Kevin McCarthy, single-handedly, pushed the debt ceiling upward to allow borrowing to increase until after the 2024 elections against not only the wishes of his political party, but the 75% of the public that wanted the reforms. This alone alienated many of our traditional economic partners who, like Saudi Arabia, realized that we wouldn’t defend the dollar so crucial to their economies and ability to trade in the international market. Not to mention our “sanctions” and our political interference in Ukraine in 2014 has led to the proxy war with Russia in Ukraine, a seeming bottomless pit of financial aid and could lead to nuclear war.

The question in Mexico in 1861 is the same question in the U.S. in 2023. What happens when the leg-breakers show up at the door and demand payment?

In Mexico, the Battle of Puebla might still be celebrated locally and nationally in the United States, but it was only the start. A year later, in May of 1863 Puebla was surrounded by French troops who laid siege to it for two months before it surrendered. This opened the door to Mexico City and it was soon occupied, forcing Benito Juarez far to the north. In June a provisional government was established and Emperor Napoleon III installed Ferdinand Maximillian Joseph von Habsburg of Austria as King of Mexico since he had agreed to assume the debts incurred by the French troops.

The Mexicans, who had been forced from power and were exiled in the north, appealed to the United States for help based on France’s violation of the Monroe Doctrine, but the United States was a little busy with its own troubles in 1863 and refused. It wasn’t until the end of the Civil War that the United States began putting pressure on France to withdraw its troops.

A combination of United States foreign policy and stirrings of war back in France from the Prussians led Napoleon III to withdraw his troops in November of 1866 and as the balance of military might swung to the advantage of Benito Juarez and disillusionment of the conservatives for Maximillian forged a united Mexico against the installed king, Maximillian I surrendered in May of 1867. Despite worldwide pleas for leniency, Maximillian was executed on June 19, 1867.

But we don’t celebrate Quince de Mayo, or Diecinueve de Junio, either of which would be more appropriate. Cinco de Mayo celebrates the obstinate refusal to pay one’s debts. It establishes a protocol for denial of payment, nothing less.

It does seem ironic that since we started celebrating it, we have continually turned toward emulating Mexico in almost every way from unrepayable debt to government corruption. The United States is a narco-state trafficking in children for sexual purposes and inviting criminals and the diseased into the country without a care for the damage done to the society. It’s a morally and financially bankrupt state, led not by the elected or the people themselves, but by a bureaucratic cabal. They might be able to gloss it over a bit longer, but Russia and China are likely to expose it soon enough. We have become a third-world hellhole, unable or unwilling to stop the violation of our borders, pay our bills, maintain order, establish credit, or field a competent, well-supplied military. The U.S. procurement system can’t even produce a functional jet fighter anymore, long gone are the days of the OODA Loop and John Boyd. We face a crisis of competence, something that will not be solved by subsequent generations educated on knowing pronouns over trigonometry and focused on their health issues caused by the vaxx rather than developing some great building material. Instead, like Mexico, we’ll look our creditors in the eye and challenge them to come and get it. We’ll impose the Cinco de Mayo protocol and lose all future credibility.

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