That duality is part of the Chicano experience and, in consequence, is part of the Cinco de Mayo celebration. I was born in San Diego and my son was born in Utah, in lands that in the past belonged to Mexico.įor me and for many Chicanos like Zaragoza, our history proves the phrase, “We didn’t cross the border, but the border crossed us.” My late great-grandfather José Navarro Paniagua and my late grandfather Francisco Navarro Gallegos were born in Mexico, and during the bracero years, they both emigrated and worked under the sun in California’s Central Valley they eventually moved to Tijuana, where my father, José Francisco Navarro Zamora, was born. Once I learned that background, I felt I had found a genuine reason to join the Cinco de Mayo celebration, and I compared what I know of my family history with Zaragoza’s. More recently, in 1980, his statue was placed in the Goliad State Park and Historic Site southeast of San Antonio. Increasingly, the battle’s anniversary was celebrated by Texans and Mexicans, and by communities in both countries. He received a Mexican meritorious recognition, and his name was written in golden letters in the Mexican Congress. Soon after, the French army again invaded Mexico, but Zaragoza’s victory had already turned him into a legend. 8, 1862, the same year as his victory against the French. ![]() Zaragoza became seriously ill with typhoid fever and died on Sept. Texas eventually won its independence and became the Republic of Texas, joining the union as the 28th state in 1845. ![]() Zaragoza grew up in Mexico and enlisted in the Mexican army in 1836. His father was a Mexican soldier and his mother was from Texas. Zaragoza was born on March 24, 1829, in what is now Goliad, Texas, when the region was called Bahía del Espíritu Santo in Mexican territory. He explained that, for some historians, Zaragoza is considered the first historical Chicano hero. I asked a researcher at Colegio de la Frontera Norte - a Mexican think tank focused on border issues - and his answer transformed the way I feel about the celebration. Years later, as a reporter in 2008, during my first year of covering news from the north side of the border, an editor asked me to write a story about why the Cinco de Mayo celebration was so popular in the United States. If I transport myself back to those years, I associate Cinco de Mayo with a bright sun, the smell of carne asada, and me playing and dancing with my sisters at my grandparents’ house, with loud music blaring from a boombox nearby. Yet in my hometown of Tijuana during the 1990s, the Cinco de Mayo celebration was much less patriotic and way more rowdy, paired with that beer’s vibe.įor a transfronteriza millennial like me, May was the beginning of the warmest season, and during the first week of the month, sarapes and sombreros related to the Cinco de Mayo celebration would be the theme at bars and restaurants “for older people,” especially at those along Avenida Revolución. Zaragoza’s battle report to then-President Benito Juárez was brief but significant: “Las armas nacionales se han cubierto de gloria.” The national arms are covered with glory. He commanded almost 2,000 soldiers and 2,700 Indigenous farmers who wore sarapes and sombreros and used machetes and spear points made of wood and metal to defend their territory against French pistols, bayonets and cannons.
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