Cinco de Mayo for idiots: It's the Mexican beer, stupid!

Cinco de Mayo was "invented by the Corona beer company to sell beer. It's a manufactured party day," we learned via Twitter — "the new CNN" as Melissa Clouthier calls it — the blogosphere and Google this afternoon. Would it be too much to ask of high school teachers to do a little research before misleading students into believing it's a "Mexican Heritage Day?" Details below.

"Cinco de Mayo isn't a real holiday," twittered radio talkster Vicky Nissen in response to our own retweet of the rightfully-mocked story of those Live Oak High School California high school students who were "sent home for wearing American flag T-shirts" for fear of offending the delicate sensibilities of hot-headed fellow students of Mexican descent. First a little background and then a little perspective. The facts:

Galli says he and his friends were sitting at a table during brunch break when the vice principal asked two of the boys to remove American flag bandannas that they wearing on their heads and for the others to turn their American flag T-shirts inside out. When they refused, the boys were ordered to go to the principal's office.

"They said we could wear it on any other day," Daniel Galli said, "but today is sensitive to Mexican-Americans because it's supposed to be their holiday so we were not allowed to wear it today.

The boys said the administrators called their T-shirts "incendiary" that would lead to fights on campus.

Kind of reminds us of the "scientific research" cited by Iran's first president proving "that women's hair emitted rays that drove men insane." Who knew that T-shirts could drive Mexican-American men insane? Beyond the rank condescension and stupidity of school officials' hair-trigger, politically correct overreaction encouraging students to act out identity-politics grievances — not to mention the offense their behavior represents to the "tens of thousands of American men and women who have died defending this country and for the freedoms we enjoy and our Flag and for what it stands" — Cinco de Mayo is nothing more than "a manufactured party day," as PJ Emeritus notes in the comments at Hot Air:

It was invented by the Corona beer company to sell beer … Mexican Independence Day is Sept 16 – not May 5. The Mexicans don’t even celebrate Cinco de Mayo – AT ALL.

These people need to lighten up. As beer distributor rep Dan Don puts it:

"I want to say it's just like St. Paddy's Day. Then, everybody's Irish, and everybody's Mexican on Cinco De Mayo," the beer salesman said. "It's a big Corona day."

Salud!

Update: The Rhetorican links:

Will the students target Corona Beer next?

Update II: Our friend Mark in the comments alerts us to an excellent piece on the history and significance of the real Cinco de Mayo, "primarily a regional holiday" in Mexico:

Commercial interests in the United States and Mexico have also had a hand in promoting the holiday, with products and services focused on Mexican food, beverages and festivities, with music playing a more visible role as well. Several cities throughout the U.S. hold parades and concerts during the week following up to May 5th, so that Cinco de Mayo has become a bigger holiday north of the border than it is to the south, and being adopted into the holiday calendar of more and more people every year.

Update III: Blog friend Ed Driscoll links:

But there’s no political narrative to shove alcohol-related celebrations into.

Update IV: Joe Hicks at Pajamas Media links in "Multiculturalism Reaches Its Dead End" [If only – Ed]:

Hell, it’s actually only celebrated in one Mexican state, Puebla, and here in the United States the day is just one more excuse for some to get drunk — hardly an event of high cultural meaning.

Crossposted at Liberty Pundits.

Comments

[Connecticut Yankee]

Happy Cinco de cuatro to you too; lest we forget last year's presidential wish for a fifth of fourth.

My kitties don't care about beer holidays, Mexican or otherwise-- they will have their grown-in-Canada catnip 365/365. If Mexico can produce kitty giggle weed as good as the stuff from British Columbia, they might be willing to sample it.

And one of their favorite cat beds is made from fleece with a stars-and-stripes pattern. I often have to evict one of the kitties temporarily to clean the fur out of the bed or put it through the washer. I guess that makes them bitter clingers!

[goomp]

The ignorance and arrogance of the so called educators of the modern educational system are beyond belief and have placed us on the verge of disaster.

[KingShamus]

See, the educational establishment just wants to keep things quiet. Bland, dull and under no circumstances can they ruffle any minority feathers.

So if it takes bullying a couple white kids about their American flag gear, so be it. It's just easier that way. So what if a few kids get a stubbed toe? Who cares if the American flag gets disrespected?

As long as there are no accusations of racism or discrimination-which could lead to bad publicity and lawsuits-the administrators will gladly set up a few luckless honkies to take a fall.

Sad, but that's just the way it is.

[Mark Bessette]

Hello Sissy,

I thought you might like to know Cinco de Mayo is a real date celebrated.

cheers,

Mark

[Sissy Willis]

Mark:

Thanks for the excellent link!

I was aware that Cinco de Mayo was a real but not-much-celebrated holiday in Mexico but didn't make that clear in the blogpost. Will add it in an update.

[Gayle Miller]

This is America kids, get over yourselves. You are probably guests here and not actual legal residents and all the more reason to zip your rude little lips and shut the heck up.

The patriotic tees being worn by some students were in no way meant to "diss" you, but rather to educate you about what country is currently sheltering you, you ungrateful and ignorant little brats.

[Teresa]

If I were a Mexican-American I'd sue the school for discrimination. After all, the school administration is assuming (based on ethnicity) that a certain group of students (Mexican-Americans) will be unable to control themselves and act like civilized human beings if confronted with an American flag.

I don't know about you, but that sounds pretty insulting to me. And I'm not even Mexican-American. Heh.

[Sandy]

Seems that this holiday is only celebrated by the citizens of Pueblo, Mexico. Sometime in the 1800's the French tried to take the city and were defeated on the 5th of May by the townsfolk. The U.S. makes a big deal out of it because like it says in the other blogs it's like St. Patty's and other non-official holidays. Corona Beer had a lot to do with the Cinco de Mayo promotion. This PC junk has gotta stop.

[fretsward]

After millions of illegal aliens protested on our law day, May 1st in the streets of this nation (again) and demanded citizenship, threatened to attack Americans with shovels and axes - those of you who supported this pander-fetst are indeed, morons, and, if you will: any of a subclass (Crossopterygii) of bony fishes (as a coelacanth) that have paired fins suggesting limbs, that may be ancestral to the terrestrial vertebrates, and that are mostly extinct — called also lobe-fin.

The majority of Americans of all races have expressed their disapproval for the tsunami of illegal aliens running rampant throughout our country, and the upcoming Amnesty pushed by the racist Illinois Congressman and Mexican loyalist, Luis Gutierrez. After all, Democrats have to pay the Hispanic community back for allowing illegal immigrants to vote in our elections (an offense that would get you a prison sentence in Mexico).
If you seek answers, just look to the “racist” groups like The National Council of La Raza (The Race), MeCHA, LULAC, and a terrorist group called the “Mexica Movement.” Their official platform says:
“We totally reject all illegal European Colonial Squatter Occupation Borders on our continent. We also reject Colonialism’s right to keep stealing the wealth of our lands. And we reject their artificial divisions of our people!” This is a group that thinks America is their property, and anyone who doesn’t fit their description should leave the country. What it also means is this is a hateful, racist and terrorist group, and it should be dealt with. Of course, we will be the Nazis.
What Americans are fed up with are the millions upon millions of people who come here illegally, do not want to assimilate or learn the language. People who send their earnings “home” to another country. People who are turning 2 bedroom apartments and single family homes into illegal camps housing up to 100. People who are stealing I.Ds and Social Security numbers from American taxpayers. People who are turning entire neighborhoods and city sections into Tijuana’s, where half the store signs advertise “llanteras usadas.” People who are killing American citizens at the rate of 27 per day through murder, drunk driving, etc. People who expect and demand their kids to be taught in Spanish, and don’t care what we Americans think. People who since 2000 have desecrated our National border parks with 45 million tons of trash.
People who drive illegally without auto insurance or set enough aside to cover their liabilities. People who use our expensive hospital emergency rooms as their cold and sniffle clinics. The real complaint here is that those “lazy Americans” who “follow the laws” find themselves increasingly squeezed and taxed, fingerprinted and regulated and licensed and strip-searched, while the illegals and their ilk thumb their noses, disregard our wishes, and give the finger to our laws.

Why would they want “reform” of laws they’ve shown no intention of obeying? What they really want is “belly up immigration surrender” – free instant citizenship rights to all government welfare benefits for any of their people who can get here. Why is it dangerous that we can’t discuss these things frankly in the open, without crippling euphemisms that disguise what this is really about?

Every 3 months, a population the size of Tallahassee, FL pours across our southern border. They are not “undocumented,” or “immigrants.” They are illegal aliens. Period.

In 1997, pres Zedillioo proclaimed “I have proudly affirmed that the Mexican nation extends beyond the territory enclosed by its borders.” MALDEF founder Mario Obledo stated, “California is going to be a Hispanic state. Anyone who doesn’t like it should leave. Every constitutional office in California is going to be held by Hispanics in the next 20 years.” People who don’t like such demographic changes “should go back to Europe.” They see the US as lands they claim is theirs.

Why do American public officials (or many of it's citizens) value so little what thousands have fought and died to protect?

A foreign power has stated its plans to conquer this nation by demographic warfare.

They call it Reconquista.

Why is the Hispanic/Latino agenda taking precedence over the future and direction of our country, and constantly being forced down our throats?

It's because the most dispicable, worthless, obnoxious, immoral, indignant, corrupt, greedy, wreckless, and underlying ideologically maligned country and it's people insist we do so for their benefit alone...

[Gringo]

F**k Mexico. I worked there for 10 yrs, lived there for 7, and wouldn't return for any price. I can/could veify that the country is corrupt from the "PREZ" to the local taco vender. Chinga Te Pendojos', En mi vida, nunca retorno a su tiera. Chinga todos los Mexicanos.